Magus' quest
by Weiila
Summary: Yeah, yeah... Magus searches for Schala... finds Frog. And teams up with him, finds Schala and goes on a rampage against the last remains of Lavos and the warlock's dark secrets of his life among the Mystics. It's finished, so don't worry about it
1. Beginning

You know, I'm aware that Magus searching for Schala is one of the most overused plots there is. But I'm trying to be original here, so give it a chance. See, in this one… finding her is just the start of it.  
  
I don't own any characters except the ones I've made up. Like Magus upcoming soulmate… *evil laugh*  
  
This is rated R for violence in later chapters.  
  
  
  
***Magus's quest***  
  
~*~Chapter 1 Old enemies and "friends"~*~  
  
The air smelled like dry sand, and the light was strangely grey. The only light-source was a distant hole in the cave's ceiling, way up high.  
  
Walking very slowly, Magus moved carefully forwards on the ledge, watching the enormous, empty cavern below him. There was absolutely no living thing here, except the warlock.  
  
Frowning, he reached for his cloak and pulled out an old, well read book. He opened it and read a few lines. Shaking his head, he put the book back and decided to continue a little while longer, though there wasn't much left of the ledge. But... that's a bit strange...  
  
The end of the cave was hidden in darkness, though it looked natural. It took even a trained eye to notice that it was a bit too dark. Magus' lips drew back a little.  
  
'Whoever made up this stupid little joke,' he thought, touching the place in the cloak were the book laid, 'he wasn't an amateur.'  
  
Of course it would have taken a great magician or warrior to even dare trying "the little joke". This could actually be rather interesting, and that was the only reason the dark lord even was in the cave. He moved closer to the end of the ledge, listening closely for even the slightest sound.  
  
Suddenly, a rising circle of dirty light cut through the darkness. Magus stopped and watched as the circle became a big pillar. For a moment the light was steadily rising, then it faded. The pillar was still there, but it looked like it was made of glass. It was ten feet high and inside it, close to the top, a small body was floating in thin air.  
  
"So there you are," Magus whispered, frowning.  
  
It was Frog. He was unconscious and in bad shape. His clothes were all torn and burned; the left leg had an ugly cut, as well as both arms. Outside of the circle lay the Masamune on the cave's floor.  
  
Someone moved up to the circle on the ground, and the watching warlock drew back a little, to hide a while longer. Maybe he'd even keep hiding; saving a Guardia knight, and this one in particular wasn't really his kind of thing. But when a voice spoke, even the great Lord of Darkness found himself a bit surprised.  
  
"Are you going to play until nightfall?" the voice said, irritated, "why don't you just kill him?"  
  
What the...? Magus moved closer again.  
  
"Patience, cutie," another, soft, voice said with a small laugh, "I want him fully awake and feeling."  
  
From the softly red lips came one of those strange voices that are hard to tell whether they belong to a man or woman. The body was the one of a woman, dressed in white clothes and a pink cape, which matched the hair. But this was no woman. It was Flea, the magician. And the other, irritated voice belonged to Slash the swordsman. He was nowhere to be seen, though. But he spoke again:  
  
"Stop fooling around, he knew he'd lost just as soon as we took his beloved sword away."  
  
'Applause, I give,' Magus coldly thought.  
  
"Kill him now, Flea!" Slash's voice demanded, and it was the magician's lips that moved.  
  
So sharing the same body to stay alive was their secret. They must somehow have escaped the final blow in Ozzie's castle, too weak to stay in the mortal world alone. It was pretty dumb really, two minds trying to control the same arms and legs... yet, if they had managed to beat Frog... applause.  
  
"Alright, alright!" said Flea sourly, "I'll kill him, you funslayer."  
  
"Good, then what are you waiting for?" Slash snapped.  
  
Flea raised his small, right hand and drew a circle in the air, followed by a standing line above it.  
  
Dark smoke came from the magician's finger as he moved it, and stayed in the air even afterwards. It looked very much like a rope. As Flea grabbed it with one hand, a similar smoke rope appeared in the air behind Frog.  
  
"Couldn't you have thought about something better?" Slash asked, bored.  
  
Flea snorted.  
  
"I told you I wanted him awake," he said, "what could ever be worse for this brave knight than this kind of death?"  
  
There was a slight moan coming from Frog.  
  
"Seems like you're lucky after all," Slash said with an evil smile.  
  
Frog weakly shook his head, trying to regain his senses.  
  
"Did you sleep well, little reptile?" Flea mocked, waving at him with the one free hand.  
  
"Thou shalt not escape this vile crime..." the knight whispered, croaking.  
  
"Whatever," Slash snorted.  
  
Flea moved his hand. When the rope that the evil one held was moving, so did the one by Frog. He tried to struggle as he felt the magic smoke around his neck.  
  
"Rats of darkness!" he croaked, too weak to reach up to his throat.  
  
"I'm afraid we're short of scaffolds, dear guest," Flea said with an evil smile, "this will just have to do."  
  
The pillar of light started to disappear, and with it the power which kept Frog floating. He started making pathetic sounds, struggling for air, as his own weight slowly began to strangle him.  
  
Magus stood up in his full length upon the ledge.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Lightning!" he yelled as he threw himself out into the cavern, snarling the needed spell as he dashed through thin air.  
  
Flea and Slash jumped aside, completely surprised as lightning bolts flew from Magus' chest and hit the ground by the circle. Just as the magic attack came to stop, the dark wizard got a grip of Frog. The rope disappeared as the warlock got a grip of the knight, and the two hit the ground. Magus got up on his feet, glaring at the one he'd just saved. He was both confused and angry, surprised over his own actions. Frog was just as confused, trying to focus his eyes.  
  
"Why did thou cometh to my aid?" he whispered.  
  
"You just shut up!" Magus growled.  
  
He was already regretting his quick decision.  
  
"My, what a sweet reunion!" Flea laughed.  
  
He continued, mocking Frog's way of talking:  
  
"Lord Magus, I bideth thee welcometh! How abouteth a littleth barbaqueth to celebrateth? Powers of the world, lend me the power of Lightning!"  
  
The warlock was forced to jump backwards to avoid the bolts leaving Flea's chest.  
  
The magician had been the Lord of Darkness' teacher. He logically knew about Magus' special defense against magic; that only the last thing he'd chanted could hurt him. The warlock hardly avoided the lightning, Frog's weight gave him some trouble. He couldn't drop his burden either, because the knight would surely get killed if left in his condition. Even though that wouldn't be an entirely bad thing, it would make the foolish rescue a complete waste of time. Magus cursed the short memory of the sweet revenge against Lavos, the thought was all that had convinced him that he should give Frog a hand, just this once. It had felt stupid enough even as he decided to make a move, now the dark lord was getting really mad.  
  
"Why don't you say something, lord Magus?" Slash asked with a mean smile upon Flea's lips, "we haven't seen each other in such a long time, and you don't even greet us?"  
  
"Pha!" Magus growled, "dark powers of the world, I dare to ask of you to lend me strength!"  
  
"Less funny..." Flea muttered as he felt the air thicken by Magus' hasty chanting.  
  
Slash was surely the leading mind when the womanlike body spun out of the way for the two gigantic triangles, one white and one pitch-black. As the white one was swallowed by the dark, all sounds and movement froze for the one split second before a massive wave of pure dark pressure threw every last loose piece of material in the cave up against the shaking walls. Magus lost his breath as Frog was thrown against his chest and the warlock's back hit the wall at the same time. On the other side of the cave, Flea and Slash got their body to its feet again. Everyone was breathing deeply.  
  
"That was not very smart, indeed," Flea said, regaining the breath, "did you leave your brain outside, cutie?"  
  
Magus got up, staggered and leaned against the wall, gritting his teeth. He should have known better than to try to defeat Flea and Slash with only one blow. Flea was a magician, and therefore his body had a strong magic resistance. Dark Matter was a far too consuming spell to use in a moment like this, it had drawn too much of the warlock' energy. Now he maybe could manage to chant a low level spell to keep Flea and Slash busy enough for an escape. Well, it would have been a option if they hadn't been all so far away that they were out of reach for such a puny attack.  
  
And all this trouble because of the blasted knight! Speaking of which...  
  
There was a weak sound to be heard from Frog. His green skin was stretched with pain as he tried to summon the last of his fading powers.  
  
"Masamune...!" he whispered, "cometh to my hand!"  
  
And the sword, fallen by the wall a few feet away, rose up in the air and floated towards its owner.  
  
Frog gripped the hilt and tried to focus his eyes at Magus.  
  
"I can hardly hold it..." the knight whispered, "thou must use this single chance..."  
  
It was not like he threw the Masamune, he moved his weakened arm back a little and let go.  
  
"Powers of the world…" Magus growled.  
  
He hurriedly chanted the spell of fragile lightning, and the bolt hit the falling weapon as it fully hit the ground.  
  
He had no idea how he'd understood what Frog had meant, but it worked. The sword pointed at the enemy as it laid on the ground and that lead the lightning in the right direction. The bolt danced forth over the cave floor, directly towards Flea and Slash. A fry that puny wouldn't hurt badly, but Magus took the chance and retreated as an angry cry filled the thick air.  
  
"You weaklings... aaaugh!"  
  
"You're causing far more trouble than you're worth!" Magus growled as he ran with Frog in a tight grip.  
  
"Why did thee even help me?" Frog muttered, with as much sarcasm as he could summon, "owing thee something… nay, I would rather loose my life in a fight against the late Ozzie..."  
  
"Owing me something? You?" Magus snorted, "what on earth could you ever help me with?"  
  
"Defeat Lavos, for one... ugh..."  
  
Frog's bulb eyes turned, and he fell back into unconsciousness.  
  
'Why did I even bother?' the dark magician thought, irritated, 'it didn't bring me anything, helping this little fool.'  
  
But it was done, so he decided to bring Frog away from the deserted island and leave him someplace safe. Starting to act stupid, Magus thought he might as well finish it.  
  
All of a sudden the Masamune flew up in front of him, blocking his way. Magus hated the sword enough in a warrior's hand; if it had a life of its own he was in trouble. He froze, prepared to duck. But the weapon just moved softly through the air and put itself through the metal ring at Frog's belt. Hanging there, it swung and hit Magus' legs several times as he moved on. He was on his last nerve as he finally reached the surface, and stepped out into the sunlight. The ruins of Ozzie's castle were already, after only a year, beginning to get overgrown with all kinds of climbing plants.  
  
The large amount of power he'd wasted on Dark Matter was starting to concern Magus. Maybe he should have taken a rest two days ago... usually he never had to fight, monsters were often smart enough to step aside, and he had never needed much sleep. But now, he was weakened through a foolish mistake, and he could not take the chance to even sit down while still on the island. It was quite possible that Flea and Slash owned a few bottles of healing potions, and he didn't. So he'd just have to bear it until he had left this island.  
  
All these problems and thoughts made him loose a little attention and he almost walked straight into the twenty Guardia soldiers, lead by a captain in golden armor. There was a frozen moment, before the captain spoke.  
  
"General Frog?" he said in great surprise, his rather wide eyes going between the carried and the carrier, "who are you, stranger, who have found him?"  
  
It figured, really. Most humans who had seen the Prince of Darkness hadn't survived it.  
  
Magus was just about to leave Frog and depart without a word, when the small green knight suddenly awoke and spoke with broken voice:  
  
"What bring thee to our time once more, Magus...?"  
  
Make that '102 reasons to cut the little pest in half'...  
  
The armed men obviously went through a short flashback, recalling all they had ever heard about the evil one. Removing the most wild tales about three heads and similar, they probably recalled the more realistic ones that their own general had provided; blue hair and pale skin, wearing a blood- red cape.  
  
A lot of swords were drawn, pointing at Magus. He found himself standing with the back against a wall. There were no possible exits except straight up, but he was too weakened to try a flight. Frog had fainted again, and was therefore not supplying much help. Speaking wouldn't bring anything since the soldiers surely wouldn't even listen, and dropping the unconscious one would only make them attack. The only reason Magus was still in one piece was the fact that the men didn't want to hurt Frog.  
  
The caught one clenched his teeth. As he was weakened, it wouldn't take the Masamune to finish him off…  
  
There was a small buzz, just in the corner of the mind. A Gate? Magus' gaze swirled downwards, a flame of hope glistening in his dark heart.  
  
The warlock had mastered the Gates, he could easily open one anywhere. But that was when he was stronger than at the moment. He might be able to open one that already was placed somewhere, though.  
  
A sparkle in the long grass, to the right... Magus kicked at it, snarling the short spell. A sparkling, deep blue hole opened by his side. Without hesitating he threw himself through it, the angry yells of the soldiers following him.  
  
As the Gate closed behind him Magus found himself at the same place as before. However, now there were no soldiers there and the crumbled walls were almost gone; broken by the hard wind and rain. After putting Frog down in the sunbathing grass, the dark lord pulled out his timecrystal. He had made it by himself to make the time traveling simpler. It was a small, blue crystal ball, which showed the date and year after going through a Gate.  
  
It said 'March 8, year 701 AD'.  
  
A hundred years, exactly... that should keep even Flea and Slash away. Still it was best to stay on guard, ready for attacks.  
  
Magus turned his thin eyes at Frog. It seemed like the knight would stay unconscious for a longer while this time.  
  
'You've caused me far too much trouble,' Magus thought, irritated, 'this time, I won't let you get away.' 


	2. Eugh!

~*~Chapter 2 Revenge~*~  
  
Frog awakened because his nose was about to catch fire. Something smelled awful. With a groan he tried to raise his hands to cover his nostrils. But the arms felt so heavy that he hardly could move them. It was hard to see, too. The world seemed to be nothing more than big lumps of color. Frog tried to blink everything into place again…  
  
One of the lumps stood up and moved closer, away from a bright, flaming lump.  
  
"Finally awake, are we?" a cold, familiar voice said.  
  
The world suddenly became clear.  
  
"Magus, thee?" Frog gasped.  
  
He tried to sit up but was pushed back, not too softly. Suddenly his whole body was aching, remembering what had happened. He couldn't stop another groan. Magus sat down in the grass.  
  
"Stay where you are," he said, warning, "you've been hurt."  
  
"Why did thee...?"  
  
The dark lord raised a hand, holding an old book. Its cover was of dry, cracked soft-wood and there were pointy shadows on it, which lead to assuming there might have been jewels attached to it once upon a time.  
  
"I found this book in the year 1134 AD," Magus said with a strange, cold little smile, "they've built a big library at that time, containing most of the books written by then. This is the diary of queen Leene."  
  
He opened the book and turned the pages as he kept talking:  
  
"Now let's see, it was on the 10:th of March..."  
  
"Thou should not be..." Frog began.  
  
"Shut up. Aha, here it is... it says here: 'March 10, 601. Today the troop my husband sent to Ozzie's old lair returned, and my heart is still frozen solid with fear as they left their terrible rapport. I should have followed my hunch and not have let Frog lead the expedition! The soldiers told us that as soon as they landed on the beach, the ground suddenly opened and swallowed our faithful general!' "  
  
Magus looked up at Frog, with no expression in his eyes at all.  
  
"When I found it, the continued text said 'When they finally found Frog, inside a great cave, he was already dead. At the sight of his body which they brought back, even I can conclude that he had suffered attacks from strong magic. The soldiers also found a message on the cave floor by poor Frog, written in his blood. It said 'Let everyone know that I, Magus, was victorious in the end.' If only I had stopped Frog from going there!' Touching, wasn't it?" the warlock said with a sneer, "since I knew I wasn't even thinking of ever have to see you again, I came to wonder who had dared to kill you in my name. That is the only reason I returned to your time."  
  
Frog tried to say something but the dark lord held him back by continuous speaking, once again looking at the book:  
  
"My appearance obviously changed history a bit; the text is different. It now says this: 'My heart is still frozen solid from hearing the terrible news; Frog was abducted by the undead Magus! I shiver as I think about what torments my dear friend must suffer in those dark clutches, and I can not do anything to help him!' "  
  
Frog tried to sit up again, but his wounded arms couldn't hold him. He fell back.  
  
"I must returneth!" he said with a husky voice, "I cannot leave the queen in such a..."  
  
"You're not going anywhere until I say so."  
  
Magus slammed the book shut. Frog stared at him, with growing unease.  
  
"First of all," the warlock said, "I wasn't planning on saving your neck. But since I did, you caused me a lot of unnecessary trouble."  
  
Frog clamped his teeth.  
  
He had been into situations that could be rated as worse than this.. Together with trusted friends (and Magus) he had traveled through history and faced the worst creatures that ever had tormented the planet. He had been battling Lavos; the most powerful beast in the whole world.  
  
But through all these perils, he had been in a condition when he could fight and use magic.  
  
This seemed to be much darker than trying to survive Lavos' very core; the ultimate evil.  
  
Frog had no strength to fight whatever Magus had in store for him.  
  
"So," the knight coldly said, "I suppose my next query should be what thou planeth to do with me."  
  
Magus put the diary away.  
  
"I was considering roasting you alive," he said thoughtfully, "but I think I'll bring you along instead."  
  
"Pardon?!"  
  
Frog sat up of the pure astonishment. He fell back with a painful moan.  
  
"I'm still searching for Schala," Magus said with a cold smile, "and you're coming with me."  
  
"I cannot..."  
  
"You can, believe me."  
  
Frog shook his head, in his state it could pass as violently.  
  
"No!" he said, "I simply could not, not ever, do anything like that without the permission from my liege! It would be absolutely inexcusable!"  
  
Magus calmly raised his eyebrows.  
  
"Well then," he said, "you spitted out yourself that you are indebted to me. Tell me, how would you explain to your beloved queen Leene that you have to leave to follow the Dark Lord on his journeys?"  
  
By those words Frog turned away, his eyes burning with anger. Magus didn't waste his breath anymore. Without another word he went back to the fire he had set up and started stirring the boiling potion, turning his head away to be able to stand the odor. He had found a piece of an old candleholder outside of the ruins as he had looked for a place that seemed safe enough for a rest, and for just once he'd decided to actually try to use his knowledge of potions for something… "good". After a simple fire spell, the broken candle carrier had turned out to work quite well as a small pot for cooking. The smell was giving away that it was something absolutely terrible he had managed to create. Splendid, actually.  
  
Frog used the free time to check what kind of mess he'd gotten into. To his surprise, he found that Magus actually had wasted some time to take care of the knight's wounds. He had cut Frog's own, torn cloak in pieces and used them as bandages. But what was really shocking was that he had assembled some soft spruce twigs and laid his own, blood-red cloak upon the green heap. Then he had put Frog down and spread the red cloth over him, making a simple bed. It was completely astonishing, even a bit bizarre. How could this be, it was something that simply could not happen!  
  
Magus reached for one of the many tiny, hidden pockets in his belt and found a dry, blue herb. It was probably at least ten years old, but as he dropped it in the small pot, the yellowish color became sickly green-brown. The stench became even worse, though it had seemed impossible.  
  
"What on earth is that?" Frog asked, with a trace of horror in his voice.  
  
The warlock didn't answer. He lifted the pot from the fire, still turned away. Then he pointed at the source of the awful smell and muttered in a low voice. A small icicle left his finger and hit the small bowl, which turned frozen white for a moment before it went back to normal burned brown. The stench became a little more bearable, but it definitely didn't disappear.  
  
"It might be a long journey," Magus said as he stood up.  
  
"Yes?" Frog said, frowning.  
  
As the dark lord came closer, there was an evil sparkle in his eyes. The knight felt a cold hand grabbing his heart.  
  
"You're badly hurt, and you've got fever because of the wounds," Magus explained with a cruel smile, "you're in need of a medicine to heal faster, since I can't use that kind of magic."  
  
It was amusing to watch Frog's terrified gaze.  
  
"Oh, no. No, please..."  
  
The knight tried to move away, but his wounds kept him bound. Magus put his free hand under the green head and forced his patient/prisoner to sit up.  
  
"I believeth I would feel better with thy scythe through my chest," Frog said, trying to turn his head away.  
  
"I admit I'd probably find that just as satisfying," Magus sneered, "but I'll have you drink this instead. Now, be a... man. Shantara na loga."  
  
Magus gave another wicked smirk as his short spell mercilessly brought Frog's forcefully clenched jaw to bend open.  
  
Terror and disgust flowed in the prisoner's eyes as Magus poured the potion into the big mouth. When it finally was all gone and the knight was allowed to lie back, he desperately gripped some grass and put it in his mouth to help off the remaining taste. The dark lord found himself with a true smile on his lips, even a shadow of laugh in his chest. Frog just looked too pathetic.  
  
"What by the love of God was that?!" the swordsman finally croaked.  
  
"Do you really want to know?" Magus asked, still with a trace of the smile.  
  
"No!" Frog shuddered.  
  
"Surprisingly wise decision."  
  
The warlock went back to the fire, throwing the pot into the forest as he walked. He sat down, watching the flames.  
  
Not a word was spoken for a while.  
  
Finally, after surely half an hour, Frog used his tongue.  
  
"Magus, dost thee even have proof of thy sister not being dead in the Ocean Pala..."  
  
The dark lord turned to look at the knight, and there was a dangerous flame in his eyes.  
  
"She's alive," he said, sharply, "I know she is. Don't ever question it."  
  
Frog sighed.  
  
"Aye, let it be so, then," he tiredly said, "where shalt we search her?"  
  
Magus was a bit surprised over this sudden lack of protests, but decided to watch and see if it was real.  
  
"As soon as you can walk we'll go back to the library where I found the diary," he said, "if there's somewhere written about a blue-haired woman, the chances are good that it can be found there."  
  
"I understand thou believeth that she also was thrown through a Gate, then?" Frog concluded.  
  
Magus nodded.  
  
"Myself and the three gurus were thrown through time as Lavos awakened," he said, "it seems quite possible that the same happened to Schala."  
  
Frog was about to point out the fact that queen Zeal hadn't got thrown anywhere, but found it wiser not to. Instead he said, thoughtfully:  
  
"It comes to my mind, the memory of a thought which once moved into my head..."  
  
"Get to the point!" Magus said, irritated.  
  
Frog didn't take any offence, used to the warlock's ways. He simply continued:  
  
"We easily found proof that the pendant of Marle and Schala is the same, and I once wondered where the princess of Crono's heart had got it from. As I asked her, Marle told me she inherited it from her mother who'd also acquired it from her mother. Therefore I say that it could be wise to search out who was the first of Marle's ancestors to own the treasure, since that might give a clue about where thy sister is."  
  
Magus didn't answer at first, which lead Frog to believe that the dark lord actually hadn't considered that. On the other hand, he'd never cared about what others did...  
  
"Did Leene have it, then?" the warlock finally asked.  
  
"I dared to ask Her Majesty even though it was most impudent, and she told me that she owned a pendant like that, but never wore it…"  
  
His voice had steadily become more and more hoarse, it was no surprise as he started to cough violently. Magus just watched the fire, considering the different paths. When Frog after a while regained his self-control and once again laid back, the dark lord spoke.  
  
"Looking for paintings probably won't help us," he said, "most of the queens owning it might do like yours."  
  
Frog had to catch up with his breath before he could talk. "So what dost thee suggest instead, Magus? Shalt we go to different eras and simply ask the queens?"  
  
"It's not very effective either, but it'll have to do."  
  
Magus looked at the knight and smiled coldly.  
  
"You should rest. If you don't recover, I will have to make you some more medicine."  
  
"I am fine!" Frog snapped.  
  
"You better be, I'm not exactly fond of making healing-potions."  
  
Oh, really…  
  
Frog snorted, turned his back at the evil magician, and tried to sleep. But he couldn't. Go figure...  
  
After an hour trying to make the body feel sleepy instead of aching, he sighed and turned around to look at the warlock, who hadn't moved at all. He was just sitting there, watching the fire. Frog was glad to be alive, but this was almost worse than death. He had hardly been able to stand Magus even with Crono and the others around, the knight had a feeling he had a hard time ahead. The chances of Schala even being alive in any time weren't great either. Last time Frog had seen her, she had been so weakened by Lavos that she couldn't even stand up straight. And the fact that the Ocean Palace had been about to fall into pieces as she'd warped everyone else to safety, not to forget that Lavos had wreaked havoc on everything... if Magus was wrong about the Gates, it was most unlikely that his sister had survived. 


	3. Don't anger the pale one

I still don't own anything except my own creations you know… I said that from the very beginning.  
  
Now it's time for some major plot development!  
  
~*~Chapter 3 The discovery~*~  
  
"I am all well, we can leave!" Frog snarled.  
  
Actually he wasn't fully fine; the arms were pretty much healed, but the wounded leg still ached as he moved it. But another day lying down, watching the silent warlock and trying to fall asleep would make Frog go mad.  
  
Magus hadn't said much for two days, his speech the first day had been enough for a normal week. Now he stood up, shaking his cloak to get rid of all the twigs before he put it on. The wrapped, red cloth once again swallowed his neck and shoulders.  
  
The awful potion had actually worked, Frog had to admit it. His wounds had healed so fast it must have been some kind of magic or medicine helping.  
  
Magus silently watched the knight as the green one held up a hand.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Water," Frog grumbled.  
  
The meaning of the words that he chanted was veiled to him, but he knew them through some blessing he had been granted by Spekkio; master of War. There was surely somebody throughout history who knew what the words meant, but Frog had actually never had the… ah… time to investigate it further.  
  
The stars that fell over him were few, and only seemed to give him a little more energy. He hadn't enough strength to recover his body to the fullest.  
  
He straightened his back and looked at his torn clothes.  
  
"Absolutely out of the question... powers of the world…"  
  
The holes after cuts and lightning upon the shirt healed, covering the bandages. But the bandage around his thigh reminded, since it was tied over the pants too.  
  
"Finally done?" Magus scornfully asked.  
  
"Thee can make it next time, if that wish is thine," Frog coldly answered.  
  
The warlock just snorted and held out his hands, mumbling in a low voice. The knight quickly guessed ol' scythe-carrier was opening a Gate, since there was a dark sparkle in the air in front of Magus. The sparkle started to grow steadily.  
  
Then all of a sudden, the magic-user bent aside. A stone at the size of a fist missed his head with an inch. Frog instinctively reached for the Masamune. There was the sound of metal against metal as he unsheathed it.  
  
"'Tis surprising to see so many Freelancers on this deserted island. Mayhap they seek old treasures within the ruins?"  
  
"They can do whatever they want as long as they don't interrupt," Magus snarled.  
  
Frog watched the armored half-birds move slowly, on guard, out from their hiding in the forest.  
  
Although they weren't known for being strong warriors, the monsters were about forty and Frog's leg was giving him a serious warning-signal. Many of the bird warriors held stones ready to be thrown; they didn't need to get close to Magus' scythe and would have time to back for his spells.  
  
"Mayhap we should proceed into the Gate and leave these warriors to enjoy their charming company for themselves?" Frog suggested, wisely calculating the odds.  
  
Magus was maybe about to say something containing the word "weakling", but instead he had to duck again. With a short growl he opened the Gate and grabbed Frog's arm as he stepped through, more or less dragging the knight along.  
  
Leaving a rather cloudy day behind they stepped out in blessing sunlight, on a hill. It was full summer, the hill was a blooming wave in a sea of flowers. The meadow was wonderful. It reached far; didn't stop until trees, surely 200 yards away marked a new kind of terrain. With a look over the shoulder though, Frog found that the forest was much closer on the other side of the hill; only about ten yards.  
  
"When is this?" the knight asked, as he returned the Masamune to the metal- ring at his belt.  
  
Magus pulled out a small crystal ball from some hidden pocket and looked sharply at it. He frowned.  
  
"I hate it being disturbed as I chant," he muttered, giving Frog a cold look by a certain memory, "I was aiming for 500 AD, but this is 11992 BC."  
  
"Eight humble years has changed the winter lands so thoroughly?" the knight said, unable to hide his astonishment.  
  
It was hard to believe that this could be what had been left of the magic kingdom of Zeal after Lavos' awakening.  
  
"Obviously," Magus said, without greater interest.  
  
He turned around and raised his hands again, preparing for departure. He started to mumble again.  
  
A shadow covered the sun.  
  
At first, Frog thought it was a rain cloud. Then he looked up.  
  
"Oh my... Magus?"  
  
"Don't disturb me, you pest!" the warlock growled.  
  
Frog watched the black thing floating high up there, and shook his head.  
  
"Wouldst thou please find time to tell me that my eyes simply art trying to fool me?"  
  
Magus turned around, very irritated. Then he looked up, too.  
  
"What?"  
  
They had destroyed the Dark Omen eight years ago (according to the era's inhabitants, at least), and what the two men now saw was anyhow smaller.  
  
Could somebody in this time actually been mad and forgetting enough to assemble some major pieces of the Black Omen and put them together? And manage to make it fly?  
  
Well, obviously that was the case.  
  
"Who could ever have accomplished that?" Magus said, frowning.  
  
"Are you nuts!? Run!"  
  
There was a young woman standing by one of the close trees, glaring at the warlock and the knight.  
  
As they didn't response fast enough, she continued:  
  
"Don't just stand there, you fools! Don't you see that Dalton's coming back again?!"  
  
Then she shuddered and ran for cover, deeper into the forest. Frog and Magus exchanged glances.  
  
"Dalton?!" they exclaimed at the same time, for once agreeing in the anger.  
  
"Be that foul rat still alive?" Frog growled.  
  
"I've got some things to settle with him!" Magus snarled, watching the floating fortress.  
  
It was lucky that he kept an eye on the dark piece; it probably saved both his and Frog's life. Magus saw it coming, grabbed the knight's arms and jumped aside. The next second there was a burned hole in the hill, right where the two had been standing. Smoke softly floated from it.  
  
"He's got some enormous power source," the warlock said as another beam, as thick as a tree trunk created a second crater, "but without the power of Lavos, I have no idea where he receives it from."  
  
"Wouldst thou save thy breath for later use?" Frog suggested as burned pieces of flowers and grass where thrown in all directions by a third blow.  
  
Magus hurried into the forest, his feet not even touching the ground. There were a few more attacks, but then they ceased, and the fortress disappeared up through the few clouds in the sky.  
  
"Couldst it be that he need to restoreth his resources before he can attacketh again?" Frog said, thoughtfully.  
  
Both him and Magus were watching the clouds through the branches.  
  
"Quite possible," the warlock admitted, "I would like to know how he managed that."  
  
"He never died," Frog recalled, "he was sucked into the portal through which he sent for his golems, and therefore escaped our vengeance. However, he must have found a path leading out."  
  
"Are you mad?!"  
  
They turned around at the angry call. It was the same young woman who had told them to run earlier.  
  
She was about sixteen, and looked very frustrated.  
  
"It was pure astonishment which made our feet stand still, young lady," Frog said, not angry.  
  
She placed her fists on her hips, shaking her head.  
  
"Astonished? For seeing Dalton's blasted castle?" she said, "where have you been the last five years?"  
  
"We hath been... elsewhere," Frog explained, "could you inform us about what Dalton hath been doing, and how he accomplished that fortress?"  
  
Magus completely ignored the girl. He was staring at nothing, deep into his own thoughts. But the young woman didn't notice it, too busy with Frog.  
  
"Elsewhere?" she repeated, "where would that be?"  
  
"Far away, young lady. What hath been Dalton's doing?"  
  
The woman shook her head again, but spoke:  
  
"He returned about five years ago, and started collecting pieces of Dark Omen. Many of his old soldiers returned to him, as well as others who were scared. But at least he left us alone back then. Just a week ago he started terrorizing everyone."  
  
"Dost thou carry any knowledge about his source of power?" Frog asked.  
  
"No."  
  
The woman snorted and looked at the sky.  
  
"We lived in peace," she growled, "why did that damn Schala have to show up?"  
  
Frog could almost feel Magus stop breathing. The knight didn't even consider turning to look at his companion, staring at the girl.  
  
"What, Schala?" the knight said, knowing that if he didn't make the young woman say something wiser fast, she was as good as dead.  
  
But she went straight on, upon a path covered with poison needles.  
  
"Yes, that blue-haired freak who all the elder people started cheering about. They said she was our queen, what nonsense."  
  
"Where is she now?" Frog hurriedly asked.  
  
By now he hardly dared to look at Magus. The woman snorted again, and pointed upwards.  
  
"Where she is? Up there, with Dalton! He came down and brought both her and her friend with his creepy pet away..."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"'Why'?! Don't you even know that?"  
  
"I am sorry, I hath not acquired that wit..." Frog said.  
  
He was amazed the young woman didn't feel the air get thicker and thicker. She sighed and spoke once more.  
  
"It's simple," she said, "Dalton knows that all the older ones think she is our queen, so he tries to force her into marrying him. And he attacks us to convince her! Me and all the others with brains left agree she should give up to spare us the pain, but..."  
  
Frog fell aside as Magus moved forward, so fast that the eye had no chance to recognized it. All of a sudden the young woman was struggling for air, since the warlock was lifting her from the ground by her throat. He was mad. Very mad. All the self-control and cold planning was gone.  
  
"I'll tear you bloody apart!" he roared, his eerily red eyes shooting hot needles of hatred.  
  
The terrified woman tried to scream, but not a single sound passed her pale lips.  
  
"Magus, put her down!" Frog shouted, angrily, "she did not know!"  
  
"Shut up!"  
  
"She is innocent! Pull thyself together, we must save Schala!"  
  
"We will," Magus growled, suddenly extremely controlled again, but with his eyes burning with rage, "in a few moments!"  
  
A second time in a (at least in Magus and Frog's view) short while, there was a sound of metal being drawn over metal.  
  
"Let that innocent woman go, otherwise I will feel honored to cut thy arms off, dark wizard."  
  
He had to raise the Masamune before the woman dropped to the ground, gulping for air. Frog touched her shoulder to calm her down.  
  
"Thou couldst not be aware that Schala is the sister of this man," the knight explained, calming, "but thee better depart."  
  
She quickly took his advice and fled without a single word. Frog still hadn't looked at Magus.  
  
"We should also be on our..." the Guardia general began, not turning around yet.  
  
He turned, but not because he wanted to. He found himself above the ground, in a grip similar to the one that the woman had experienced. The Masamune fell from his hand as he fumbled for the warlock's wrists and merciless fingers.  
  
"One day," Magus growled with a voice that could have belonged to the Reaper, "when you are too old to fight anymore and your damned sword has rusted, then I will come to you and make you suffer by my hate, believe me."  
  
He dropped Frog beside the Masamune. The knight got up, picked up his sword and put it back where it belonged, all the time coughing and gasping to regain his breath. He wasn't surprised, and therefore not very mad either (at least not more than usual when in the warlock's presence). He actually felt that Magus had let him get away pretty easy for once. But the warlock had other things on his mind at the moment, coldly watching the sky.  
  
There was a flame in Magus' eyes; he wasn't thinking as clearly as usual. The rage against Dalton brought off the edge of the dark lord's sense of planning every step in enemy territory.  
  
Like this, even the great warlock could fall into a trap... they didn't even know if the woman had been right about Schala being Dalton's prisoner!  
  
"I'll get us up there," Magus said.  
  
He raised a hand and pointed straight up.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Wind! Blos shana loen…"  
  
His cape started flapping violently as the soft breeze became stronger until twigs and leaves flew around, dashing into the shaking trees. The warlock's feet left the moss, and he grabbed Frog's arms.  
  
Soon they were above the forest, steadily rising. The wind kept following them, helping Magus to float higher and higher.  
  
Frog had been about to protest against the foolishness in this front attack but watching the ground way down, knowing that Magus' hands were all that kept him from falling, he remained silent. It seemed wiser at the moment. 


	4. She's back!

~*~Chapter 4 Sibling reunion~*~  
  
It got colder as they floated higher and higher. The summer that Zeal once had enjoyed couldn't exist without the Mammon machine's power.  
  
Magus passed through the clouds, and there it was, the fortress. He flew over to it and landed on the black roof. Frog had to take a relieved breath as he felt something under his feet again, it felt much safer than hanging in the warlock's grip.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Lightning!"  
  
The roof melted after a few bolts. Below was a corridor, covered with the gold-like metal which had been everywhere inside the Ocean palace and the Black Omen. On the floor was a long, red carpet. A couple of guards blinked stupidly at the hole in the ceiling. Magus jumped inside, and Frog had no choice but to follow.  
  
"Who the..." one of the guards began, but the sight of Magus' scythe made both him and his friend draw back in fear.  
  
"Is it true that this fortress was created by Dalton, queen Zeal's general?" Frog asked.  
  
He really had no clue what kind of title the blond know-it-all-wannabe had owned, but the point made it through.  
  
"Yes, that is true, His Majesty once was the queen's right hand, and he built this..." the second guard whispered, shaking.  
  
"And Schala the princess, she is here as well, held captive?"  
  
"So it is... please don't..."  
  
"Our wish is to meet Dalton," Frog calmly said, "where is he?"  
  
Both the men swallowed hard as Magus' fingers started tiptoeing on the scythe's hilt when the reply wasn't immediate.  
  
"In the throne room," the first one whispered, "err... we'll show you."  
  
"That would be a good idea," Magus emotionlessly said.  
  
The guards showed the warlock and knight down the corridor, so nervous that they almost walked backwards to watch what Magus did. The four men passed a few other guards, but none dared to interfere.  
  
The walls was almost covered with red cloth and by every fifth meter, there was a big, black D painted on the curtains. It was laughable, even for being Dalton.  
  
They turned left, into a wider corridor. It ended by a big portal, made of the metal that maybe was gold. There were five guards standing by it, and they were a bit braver than the first two.  
  
"Who are you?" one of them called as the four people came closer.  
  
"Intruders," the warlock answered, still with no feeling in his voice.  
  
"I bid thee to respect that they are all humans, Magus," Frog warningly said in a dangerous voice.  
  
"Humph. Powers of the world, lend me the power of wind!"  
  
All the guards were knocked out as they were thrown at the walls by Magus' tornado. Then the portal suffered harder attacks.  
  
Frog swiftly wondered if Magus had shown mercy because of that he had respect for the Masamune, or if he just was saving his strength for Dalton.  
  
The two halves of the portal fell into the room with a great crash, and the two invaders stepped inside.  
  
Dalton's throne room was much like the one of queen Zeal, only four times as big. It was dark, and the stair leading up to the throne's platform was facing the entrance. Several men and women that probably were servants were pushing their backs against the walls, scared half to death. But "His Majesty" just stood up from the throne, smiling calmly.  
  
"Well if it isn't our lost prince and his slimy pet!" he sneered, "you sure took your time, so to speak."  
  
"Dalton, where is Schala?!" Magus roared.  
  
His Majesty held up his hands, almost like he wanted to seem friendly.  
  
"Calm down," he said, "she's unhurt. Why doesn't anyone go fetch the little poison-lily?"  
  
The last he said was an order, looking at the servants. A couple of them took the chance to escape through a back door.  
  
"Why are you so angry, Janus?" Dalton continued, turning back at the intruders, "are you mad because I found her before you did?"  
  
Frog grabbed Magus' arm and hissed:  
  
"It seems he knows a lot, we should proceed with care!"  
  
But the warlock just shook free from the knight's grip, holding the scythe with both hands. He just didn't want to listen.  
  
"Now who could ever have believed that the sour little boy would grow up to become such a great magician?" Dalton said, mocking, "and make such terrible things just trying to avenge the fair Schala? Tell me, aren't you afraid that she will despise you, Janus?"  
  
No answer, but Frog saw Magus' grip on the scythe tighten. Could it be that there actually was a drop of doubt in the warlock's frozen heart?  
  
The door that the two servants had disappeared through opened again. Schala entered the room, walking between the two shivering women. She was dressed just the same as last time Frog had seen her, in a softly purple dress and a cloak in the same color. Her hair hadn't changed either; blue curls fell like a waterfall from her head.  
  
But there was something about her that had changed, she moved differently. Before there had been a feeling of overwhelming carefulness and courtesy; now there was an inner power, a flame of courage that burned inside of her. She stopped, looked coldly at Dalton and spoke.  
  
"What do you want now, then?"  
  
The voice was very calm. Yet there was a slight anger in it, so controlled it was almost impossible to apprehend. But it was there.  
  
Frog carefully looked at Magus. He seemed to have stopped breathing again.  
  
"Maybe I should make everything clear for everyone," Dalton said, smiling, "as you might have concluded, our little flower Schala has changed a bit, due to her journeys."  
  
"Her journeys?" Magus repeated.  
  
Still not a trace of emotion in his voice.  
  
Schala turned to look at him and Frog, a frown appearing in her smooth forehead.  
  
"Haven't I seen you before?" she slowly said, then fixed her eyes on Magus with the frown growing deeper, "aren't you that prophet?"  
  
"Ah, yes, that little joke... the prophet," Dalton sneered, "Schala dear, why don't you tell this 'prophet' about your quest?"  
  
She turned to look at him, with a mixture of loathing and confusion.  
  
"Why then?" she said, "why would he care about what I've done?"  
  
Dalton started laughing.  
  
"What's so funny?" Schala snapped.  
  
"Oh, this is just too silly!" Dalton sighed and covered his mouth with his hand to mockingly hide a smile, "for three years you've been running through time to find him, but when you see your brother you don't even recognize him!"  
  
Schala spun around, and her eyes met Magus'.  
  
No one and nothing moved for a frozen eternity.  
  
Then the princess spoke again, with a voice that hardly kept still:  
  
"Janus, is... that... you?"  
  
The scythe fell from Magus' hands, and clonked upon the fallen portal. He didn't care about it at all.  
  
Frog hardly believed his eyes as the two long lost siblings met halfway through the room and embraced each other, looking like they were determined never to let go again. (What? Hey, you must agree there must be some kind of reaction, even though this is about the Prince of Darkness from Chrono Trigger! author's humble note)  
  
"Oh my God, Janus!" Schala whispered, almost sobbing, "you've grown so much, my little brother..."  
  
"I've missed you, Schala!" Magus muttered.  
  
His voice finally sounded alive, but it was hard to place what he felt judging from it.  
  
Schala bent her neck back a little, so that she was able to look at his face.  
  
"You are really him, aren't you?" she said, calmly, "you are the dark lord, Magus."  
  
She… knew?  
  
Magus slowly lowered his head, without responding. Schala put her hand on his pale cheek.  
  
"It's alright," she said in a low, soft voice, "I read so many things, and I hoped that it wasn't you on the few pictures... but I know you were bitter and angry, I can understand that you was a easy prey for the evil."  
  
He looked up at her.  
  
"But if you could journey through time, why didn't you come to the Middle ages?" he asked, not accusing, just wondering.  
  
Schala's eyes flashed cold, and she turned her head at the throne. Dalton sneered.  
  
"Ah, yes, I kept her from going there, that is the cruel truth," he said, "I didn't want to risk her spoiling my plans of getting rid of you both."  
  
Magus' eyes became two thin scars of hate and he let go of Schala, moving in between her and Dalton. "His Majesty" just smiled scornfully.  
  
"I plan to rule this era," he said, "and therefore I don't want the two true heirs running around as they please. It's rather confusing to investigate the world's history, but you'll learn a lot from it. Even though some pilgrims don't notice they're being followed. Adding and replacing, I've been wandering through time for several years, while letting this fortress being built here in only five. To find Schala and spread that I wanted to marry her was just a trick to lure you here, Janus. I'm actually a bit disappointed that you fell into such a simple trap."  
  
"I'm growing tired listening to you," Magus said, colder than ice, "I'll..."  
  
"Kill me?" Dalton sneered, "well then, try to. But I'm afraid you'll find it more painful for your beloved sister."  
  
He pulled out a dagger from his cloak, held up the free, left hand and cut himself over the palm. But no blood appeared on him. Instead Schala hissed and grabbed her left hand, and red liquid fell to the golden floor. Magus froze.  
  
"A very effective little curse," Dalton said.  
  
"Why you...!" the warlock roared.  
  
"Always above everyone else, aren't you, Janus?" His Majesty sighed.  
  
He sneered and pointed at the dark lord with the dagger.  
  
"You were a stupid, spoiled little boy, and you are a foolish man."  
  
At Dalton's words two thick, red glowing tentacles appeared on the floor by Magus feet. Before he could move, they had straightened up and tied their ends around his wrists, still with one end attached to the floor. Completely taken off guard Magus tried to tear himself free, but the tentacles had frozen; impossible to budge even for the strong warlock.  
  
"Let him go!" Schala and Frog yelled in unison.  
  
The knight rushed forward, drew the Masamune and tried to cut the right tentacle. But the sword moved straight through the red light, without any result. He almost hit Magus' leg instead.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Fire!" Magus roared.  
  
For a moment as he chanted he was hidden behind a huge, flaming ring. But just as little as he was hurt by his own magic, it helped him to get free.  
  
"Power of Lightning!"  
  
The bolts just went straight through, just like Masamune had done.  
  
"Water!"  
  
The whole room crumbled as two gigantic stones of ice hit the tentacles and then disappeared. Surprise, surprise, it didn't work...  
  
"Dark powers of the world…!"  
  
A dark cloud appeared, rushing at the left tentacle. Frog had to clumsily jump aside to avoid the Dark mist.  
  
It went through the tentacle as well, gnawing a half an inch deep hole in the floor around Magus before he made it dissolve into thin air.  
  
"Tired and out of ideas?" Dalton asked as the warlock tried to regain his breath.  
  
Magus almost gulped for air, he had used too much power trying to break free.  
  
"Release him!" Schala demanded, her eyes burning with anger.  
  
"Sorry, my dear, I can't," His Majesty sneered, "as you can see, he's a danger to the community. He's far more powerful than anyone of us could have guessed back in Zeal."  
  
"Release him or I'll..."  
  
"You'll what, Schala? Attack me? Pha! One can really tell you two are related."  
  
He sighed, mocking.  
  
"Aye, the way of the powerful... I'm really sorry I have to kill you too, my dear, you were so innocent and obeying back then in Zeal. But we both know that you're no longer that little flower, and therefore I can't let you, nor your brother leave here alive."  
  
"Dalton, you can't kill Janus!" Schala screeched, and there was a peculiar scent in her despair.  
  
Of course she was despaired because of her brother's faith, but there was… something strange about the way that she called out to the so called king. Something sharper than regular hopeless anger.  
  
But even as Frog wondered about it he wasn't sure if it simply had been his imagination.  
  
"Can't I?" His Majesty scornfully smirked, "dear, we already discussed this."  
  
"Dalton…"  
  
Schala's voice was hardly even a hiss.  
  
There was a sound from Magus, a sigh? Frog couldn't see his face.  
  
"The black wind..." he muttered.  
  
Schala looked around at him again, clenching and unclenching her fists.  
  
"Yes," she said bitterly in a low voice, "the black wind blows."  
  
"Such drama..."  
  
Dalton snorted.  
  
"Well, then," he said, "how to proceed?"  
  
He pointed at Schala with the dagger.  
  
"It's easy enough to kill our fair princess, I only have to stab my little knife at my own chest, but you, Janus, is well known for having a very strong defense. I can't use magic myself anymore, which is a true pity... and even more pitiful is that the power I do have probably would refuse to harm you, Janus. So I have to think of something else."  
  
Both Schala and Magus remained silent. Frog didn't utter one single word either, but his heart contained a flame of anger. He could not stand this scene, even if it was the Prince of Darkness who was held captive.  
  
"Many soldiers in 600 AD found out the hard way that you're also gifted with a skin that even can resist cold steel," Dalton continued, thoughtfully, "what to do, what to do?"  
  
He shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"Ah, well, I guess that not even the great lord Magus can survive forever without food and water... though that would be a terribly painful death. But I suppose there's no other options, since there's only one weapon in the world's history which can be dangerous to the dark lord, and that is the Masamune."  
  
He raised his eyebrows, smirking.  
  
"Oh, I forgot, it's right here in this room. Pity that only one person can use it; that green knight over there." 


	5. This will hurt

~*~Chapter 5 A knight's honor~*~  
  
Magus froze, Schala raised her hand to her lips in horror, Frog snorted.  
  
"Thou art saying that I should do thee that favor?" the knight said, despising, "I could never, never go through with such a vile crime."  
  
He returned Masamune to its ring, to make his point absolutely clear. Magus looked rather amazed; surely he had been sure that the knight gladly would have slaughter him right now, when he had the opportunity.  
  
Dalton raised one hand to cover his mouth as he smiled.  
  
"Such honor!" His Majesty said, "you have no intention to hurt a defenseless man, then?"  
  
"Not ever."  
  
Frog looked at the warlock, who watched him with disbelief.  
  
"Not even thee, Magus. As a knight of Guardia I can only take pride in fair battle."  
  
But he froze at Dalton's next words.  
  
"Fair battle? Was that what took place in… let's see, was it 598 AD? When your best friend Cyrus died and you were turned to what you are today? Was that fair battle, Glenn?"  
  
Frog clenched his fists so hard that they started shaking, nailing his eyes onto the floor.  
  
"You still hear the words that Magus spoke, don't you?" Dalton said, "at Ozzie's suggestion he decided to 'have a little fun' by giving you a new form instead of sending you after Cyrus. I know; I watched it happen well hidden."  
  
Frog closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.  
  
"He saved my life as Flea and Slash intended to kill me," he snarled.  
  
"And why on earth would he do that, except because he thought you could serve as his helper in his search? Ah, it even touched my heart to see the poor queen Leene burst into tears when she heard about your abduction."  
  
Schala reached for Frog's shoulder, but stopped and let her arm fall before she had touched him.  
  
"Please don't listen to him," she pleaded, "don't let Dalton make you do this..."  
  
Frog said nothing at all.  
  
"Of course I can kill him myself," Dalton said, "I only give you this offer to revenge all those who died. And there's also another thing. Haven't it made you wonder why this cold planning wizard hasn't turned you back into a human, since you probably would be a much stronger fighter in that form? Why wouldn't he think of that? The answer is quite simple, why don't you tell Glenn the truth, Janus?"  
  
Frog looked up and saw something impossible. There was a tiny spasm in Magus face, only once, but it was there. He looked straight forward, not moving his eyes the slightest.  
  
"What is it that he is talking about, Magus?" Frog asked.  
  
No reply.  
  
"Don't want to talk, Janus?" Dalton said in the back, "then I'll tell him. The reason is that he can't reverse the spell, Glenn. The only way you could ever become human again is that the spell caster dies. You can return to your time for all I care, I know that you can't control the Gates."  
  
"Is that the truth, Magus? You cannot maketh the spell undone?" Frog asked, harshly.  
  
The warlock's lack of reply answered the question.  
  
At first Frog didn't move. Then there was a slow sound of metal being drawn over metal.  
  
"No, don't!" the prisoner's sister exclaimed.  
  
"Get out of the way, Schala!" Magus hoarsely snarled.  
  
His face was even paler than usual as Frog put both hands around Masamune's hilt.  
  
"I am a knight of Guardia," Frog growled, "and I hurt no innocent or helpless. But thou art neither!"  
  
Despite his wounded leg he jumped, raising the Masamune for a hard cut. Magus tried to draw back by instinct, but the tentacles kept him trapped in the same place. In the next second he staggered, but not because he was dying. Hitting the warlock's chest with his feet, Frog turned and flew towards Schala. With all his might he hit her waist with Masamune.  
  
There was a short, shocked silence before Dalton screamed in pain and fell to the floor. He became quiet almost instantly, and the red carpet he laid on turned dark with blood. Schala and Frog hit the floor as well.  
  
The princess gave a relived laughter; she was unharmed.  
  
"The curse worked the other way around!" she said with a big smile, "you were the only one who thought about it, thank you!"  
  
Frog was about to answer, but felt a familiar hand around his throat. It seemed like the tentacles had disappeared by Dalton's death.  
  
"Don't you ever do that again!" Magus almost croaked and released Frog.  
  
"I see thou art fine, Magus," the knight just smiled, "did thee really believe I would do the despicable crime Dalton asked of me?"  
  
Magus snorted, meaning "I'm never sure about you, pest".  
  
"Janus, he saved both our lives," Schala said, "shouldn't you say something more suitable?"  
  
Frog had to laugh.  
  
"Oh, no, lady Schala, thou should not try forcing him into that!"  
  
"Then I say thank you for both me and my brother."  
  
"Lady Schala?"  
  
The servants approached slowly.  
  
"What shall we do… Dalton is dead, and we're trapped up here..." one of the women nervously said.  
  
"One thing at the time," Schala said, calming, "does any of you have any ethers or mid ethers?"  
  
The men and women looked at each other.  
  
"No, not here," one of the men finally said, "but I can go and get some... ethers, anyway."  
  
"Thank you," Schala said with a kind smile, "better make that three or four. My brother and his friend seem to need something to strengthen them."  
  
The man hurriedly left, while the brother, sister and Frog got to their feet.  
  
Schala turned to Magus again, and firmly took his hands. There was a sparkle of confusion in his eyes. After many, many years, somebody showed him some true caring again. He wasn't exactly used to it.  
  
"I'm so sorry I couldn't find you, Janus," Schala said with a bitter voice, "you shouldn't have had to grow up in such pain and hatred. I failed you."  
  
Frog didn't ever consider pointing out all pain that the dark lord had caused. That would have been cruel beyond compare.  
  
Magus looked away before he could speak, too unfamiliar with the situation. He spoke words that didn't really fit in his mouth, but at least he tried.  
  
"It wasn't your fault, Schala, Lavos caused all the trouble... you couldn't do anything."  
  
'Well done,' Frog found himself thinking, to his own amaze.  
  
"But if I only had opposed mother..." Schala began.  
  
"You couldn't, you just... couldn't. It wasn't your fault. I..."  
  
Magus lost his loose grip of these unfamiliar words, and fell silent. Mostly for Schala's sake, Frog decided to help.  
  
"I believe what thy brother is trying to say thee is that some things must happen. Without his help we might have been unable to defeat the monstrous Lavos."  
  
Schala turned to Frog at that.  
  
"I'm sorry," she said with a small smile, "we were never introduced, but it seems you know the story anyhow."  
  
She frowned, trying to remember.  
  
"I think... weren't you in the Ocean Palace when Lavos awakened and that boy Crono..."  
  
She became silent at the memory of the young man's sacrifice, and there was pain in her beautiful eyes.  
  
"Carry no sad thoughts," Frog hurriedly said, "for Crono was resurrected, also with the help of thy brother."  
  
Schala smiled, relieved.  
  
"That's wonderful to hear!" she said, "it's been tormenting me for so long. Oh..."  
  
She held her hand forth.  
  
"I'm Schala. Nice to meet you... Glenn, was it?"  
  
Frog smiled a little and put his smaller hand on her.  
  
"My name used to be Glenn, yes," he said, "alas, I am known as Frog."  
  
"I am sorry that the spell cannot..." Schala began, but the knight shook his head.  
  
"No, no. Dalton did not study enough, if he had done so he would have been aware that I enjoy this form."  
  
Well, he had said that before. It was true… at least partly.  
  
There were moments when he was going crazy about not being human, mostly when people looked at him like that and he could feel their whispering as he left the room… but most of the time he enjoyed his ability to jump and the muscles he had acquired.  
  
Schala looked a bit disbelieving, but if she wanted to say something it was interrupted by the servant's return. He carried four small, yellow bottles, which he handed over to the princess. She gave two each to both Magus and Frog.  
  
"Here. Especially you could use an ether or two, Janus."  
  
The warlock nodded and opened one of the bottles, emptying it after a quick sniff at the yellow liquid. He always did that; never trusting any potion not to be poisonous. Frog didn't worry, after Magus' medicine he felt he could withstand almost anything. Feeling the warmth spread through his body from his stomach, he felt better than he had done in several days time. Finally...  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Water! Na matala sela!"  
  
And at last his leg fully healed.  
  
"Ah, just what I needed. I thank thee, lady Schala."  
  
"You're welcome," she smiled, "please, just say Schala."  
  
"Now, how do we get this thing down?" Magus said.  
  
"That's no problem at all," Schala said, "but first we need to find my friends, who are imprisoned."  
  
She looked at the servants, who all got the point and showed the way through the corridors. Magus picked up his scythe and put it back into his cloak before leaving; it disappeared into the red cloth without leaving any trace at all. On the way through the corridors, which turned several times, the wanderers picked up many confused soldiers. Thus assembling quite a crowd.  
  
"What have you been doing, looking for me, Schala?" Magus asked as they walked.  
  
"I've been traveling back and forth," she told him, "together with Cered and Molor. They are both from 5300 BC. That's where I ended up when thrown through a Gate in the Ocean palace."  
  
She looked thoughtful.  
  
"I was aware that somebody worked on changing the flow of time to the better, I just didn't know who. It was you and those other persons, the blond girl, Crono... wasn't it?"  
  
"Yes," Magus and Frog answered at the same time.  
  
They exchanged irritated glares until Schala began speaking again.  
  
"You destroyed the Dark Omen fast, and Lavos awoke at that. Then he went to sleep again and was sleeping until almost 2000 AD, right?"  
  
"1999, we killed him then."  
  
Once more the warlock and the knight spoke simultaneously. Schala nodded.  
  
"The Gates crumbled at that time, it was hard and dangerous to examine it," she explained.  
  
Her eyes turned cold.  
  
"But in the search for Janus, me and my friends found out that though Lavos slept, his presence caused... let's call it dark waves, which never were corrected. We have been trying to mend them while looking for you, brother. And also, Lavos had children."  
  
"The Lavos spawns..." Frog said, "in Death Peak and in the Dark Omen."  
  
"Yes," Magus said, nodding, "we killed four of them."  
  
Schala sighed.  
  
"I'm afraid there were more," she said.  
  
Frog put a hand on his forehead, Magus pursed his mouth.  
  
"How many, do you know that?" the warlock asked.  
  
"Me and my friends have already killed five, but I'm afraid there's at least ten more. I'm not sure, though."  
  
Walking to the end of a corridor they reached a door, which was tight shut. The two guards escaped into the crowd, as nervous as everyone else except Frog and the siblings.  
  
The door was made of some black metal, and there was a small window with iron bars in. The room on the other side seemed not very well lit up, rather dark. Schala sighed as she saw the heavy padlock.  
  
"Dalton had the keys, I forgot," she said, irritated, "oh, well..."  
  
Both Magus and Frog were about to offer their help, but they were astonished by what Schala did.  
  
There were a couple of tall candleholders standing by the wall every tenth feet in the corridor. The princess grabbed one of them, blew out the candles and threw them away. Then she raised the candleholder and hit the padlock once. It broke and fell to the floor.  
  
"Much better," Schala said and put her extremely bent weapon down.  
  
She turned around, feeling the eyes.  
  
"I understand you are surprised," she said, a bit sadly, "but Dalton was right. My journey has been dangerous and I have been forced to start fighting, I'm afraid."  
  
There was a moment's silence, before Magus smiled a little. The smile looked very strange upon his lips, since it wasn't very cold nor sneering.  
  
"A little strength is never bad," he said.  
  
Then he looked down at Frog and continued:  
  
"Well, almost never."  
  
"I almost liked thee better when thou were the Prince of Darkness," Frog snorted, "then at least I knew who thee were."  
  
But he couldn't help smiling a little.  
  
"Lady Schala," one of the guards said, warning, "don't go down there, the monsters guarding..."  
  
"Nothing to worry about," Schala said with a smile, "my brother and our friend is helping me, right?"  
  
Magus nodded, and this time his smile was cold.  
  
"I will gladly lend a hand," Frog said, "but I am not a friend of thy brother."  
  
Schala raised an eyebrow.  
  
"But you saved his life," she pointed out, carefully, "and you traveled here together, didn't you?"  
  
"I could not let Dalton continue with his vile deeds," the knight explained, "and I traveled here for the one reason that Magus saved my life a while ago."  
  
"Ah, well," Schala said with a small smile, "I suppose that's better than nothing. Come on, but we need to stay on guard."  
  
She pushed the door open. Magus moved past her and brought out his scythe.  
  
"You don't need to worry about me, Janus, I can..." she began.  
  
"Yes, I understand that you can fight," he interrupted, not harshly, "but you seem to lack a weapon. You better stay between me and Frog."  
  
"My, what flashback," she smiled at that, "Cered once said something similar..." 


	6. Pets of various danger level

~*~Chapter 6 Cered and Molor~*~  
  
They started walking through the small corridor. It seemed to lead down, and slowly become less narrow. Frog drew the Masamune.  
  
"Schala, hast thee any knowledge of Dalton's evil guardians?" he asked.  
  
"He'll never change," she muttered, her movements giving away she was prepared for almost anything, "plain, red and blue scouts would be my guess, the human ninjas was almost wiped out totally as the Blackbird crashed. There, look out!"  
  
She ducked as a small bat-like body flew over her head, missing her hair with an inch. The corridor had now turned into a room. There were big empty cages standing by the walls, and the puny light came from dirty lamps on the wall. Several scouts flew around, the single, enormous eye on each one's head blinking as they prepared an attack together. It was too dusky to see which color their bodies had.  
  
"We cannot attack without wit about whether they are red, blue or normal," Frog growled, "the wrong magic wouldst only strengthen them."  
  
"We know that!" Magus snapped, "could you for once give a suggestion instead of meaningless babble?"  
  
The scouts moved faster, they were about to attack. Magus and Frog watched their movements, ready to at least fight them back the old fashioned way.  
  
"A flame would surely make the yellow and blue ones dive into the fire and get stronger," the warlock muttered, "the similar for lightning."  
  
"I'll take care of the darkness," Schala whispered, "then I can use lightning if there are any plain ones."  
  
"I will then use water-magic against the blue pests," Frog muttered.  
  
"Alright, I'll burn the red," Magus said in a low voice.  
  
"Ready?" Schala whispered, "alright... now!"  
  
She raised both her hands and exclaimed:  
  
"Powers of the world, I bid of thee to lend me the power of Light!"  
  
Magus and Frog turned their eyes at her in surprise by that last word. Schala didn't look back, concentrating on chanting a short spell.  
  
Between her hands a glowing ball appeared. Its light shed over the dirty room, revealing all that the darkness had hidden. The two men in her company just had to push their surprise away in order to fight.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Water!" Frog yelled and managed to hit two of the three blue scouts with only one bubble.  
  
"… Of fire!"  
  
Magus made a round movement with his hand as he growled his spell, creating a flaring circle that floated before him. With a forceful wave of both his hands he sent it dashing through the air, only hitting the five red bat- monsters.  
  
"… Of Lightning!"  
  
The two plain scouts fell to the floor and disappeared just as the other hit ones had done. Frog took care of the last blue one and then, just like Magus, turned to look at the shining ball that Schala had created.  
  
"What kind of magic is this?" the warlock asked, "I've never seen anything like it."  
  
"I have discovered the power of Light," Schala said, and made the ball dissolve, "I sort of stumbled upon it…"  
  
Her voice trailed of, as if she didn't want to talk about how she had found out about the power.  
  
"Now that's completely new, you know," Magus said with a raised eyebrow, moving away from the uneasy edge of Schala's voice.  
  
"Yes, indeed," the blue-haired woman nodded, "it's very powerful attack- magic, but strange as it may seem, it cannot heal. At least what I know about, I'm still not sure what kind of powers slumber within me."  
  
"A new kind of magic?" Frog said, "thee should better talk with master Spekkio in the End of Time about it."  
  
"I find that is not any of the usual rubbish the frog talk," Magus agreed, "it could be dangerous."  
  
They started walking again, towards the open door in the other end of the room. There was yet another corridor.  
  
"What is the End of Time?" Schala asked as they moved onwards.  
  
"'Tis the place where thee end up if thee travel more than three people through a Gate," Frog explained.  
  
"I've never done that," the princess thoughtfully said and smiled a little, "but if it concerns you, we should go there later."  
  
They entered another room, and this one was empty. There were no other exits than the door they had entered through. But there was a husky voice, which startled Schala.  
  
"Who goes there?"  
  
"Cered, is that you?" Schala called out.  
  
"Schala?" the husky voice exclaimed, with a lot of new hope, "down here!"  
  
There was a hole in the middle of the floor, just big enough for a grown man to pass through. There were more crossed iron-bars blocking the way down/up, and in the darkness below chains clinked. As the three non- prisoners moved closer to look down a big, dark head violently hit the bars from below, hissing angrily. Then it disappeared down into the darkness again.  
  
"What was that?" Frog almost gasped, and even Magus seemed a bit surprised.  
  
"It was Molor," Schala calmingly said, then kneeled by the hole, "Cered, are both of you alright?"  
  
"Yes, we..." the voice began but then suddenly rose to a shout, "look out!"  
  
Magus spun around, almost cutting the brown imp in half. But it avoided the attack, laughing mockingly as it jumped back to its companions.  
  
"Three mud imps?" the warlock snorted, "how very violent."  
  
"Master Dalton said not to let anyone get close to the prisoner," the left imp squeaked, "so we can't allow that you stay here!"  
  
"Dalton is dead," Schala said as she stood up, "it's useless to fight."  
  
The imps shrugged their shoulders.  
  
"It doesn't matter, orders are orders," the middle one smirked.  
  
And with that, they started to grow. Their fists became huge and cracked, and their teeth grew into fierce jaws. From being called after the dirt, they turned into beasts of stone.  
  
"Golems," Magus muttered, "how typical."  
  
"Two of them were bad enough," Frog said, holding the Masamune in a tight grip, "'tis not good."  
  
The three gigantic monsters edged closer.  
  
"They can copy our magic," Schala muttered, moving her feet so that she got a more defensive stance, "how should we proceed?"  
  
"I am always protected by a spell which can absorb all magic except the one kind I last chanted," Magus muttered, "but it only works on me. I can use Magic Wall to give you a little protection, though."  
  
"Will you be alright if they cast the right spell?" Schala asked.  
  
"I'll cast random spells, we have to take that risk."  
  
"I am uncertain about our chances in a long fight," Frog warned, "but after victory, we might be in need of some remaining power, therefore we should better not giveth all we hath stored in one blow."  
  
The golems were preparing a simultaneous attack, time was of the essence.  
  
"Magus," Frog suddenly said, "dost thee remember the attack that we called Spire?"  
  
"As you might have noticed, I am certainly not Crono," Magus snapped.  
  
"But it could work, could it not? The only task thee must accomplish is to send a strong lightning through the Masamune."  
  
The golems raised their fists.  
  
"Work together, for God's sake!" Schala cried, raising her hands for a spell of her own, "powers of the world, lend me the power of Light! Chela ta luon yleqie!"  
  
Silvery stars shot out of her hands and cut deep into the golems. It made them back a little, but more of surprise than by the princess' power.  
  
"Alright, I'll do it!" Magus snarled.  
  
Frog nodded, took a great leap and landed on one of the golems' head. Before it could knock him off, the knight had stabbed Masamune as deep into the stone-neck as he could manage, though that wasn't more than a scratch for the giant. He jumped back on the floor, leaving his sword.  
  
"Now, Magus!"  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Lightning!"  
  
Violently sparkling bolts flashed out of Magus' chest. As he moved his hand upwards they obediently went straight up and melted into one. That fused beam turned at the golems by the warlock's command and hit the Masamune, being lead straight into the golem. It roared in pain and cracked to pieces, at the same time as Schala finished yet another spell unfamiliar to her companions. With a hiss she turned her palms at the two remaining golems. Several glowing, spiked objects left her hands and dashed towards the two remaining monsters, cutting deep into their stone-bodies. It didn't affect them very much, though.  
  
Frog ducked forward, grabbed the Masamune from the heap of rocks and turned to the foes.  
  
"Magus, let us try again!"  
  
Without waiting for reply, he took an almost desperate leap, aiming for the next golem. However its companion raised its hand and hit the knight. He was thrown into one of the walls, avoiding getting killed by the own sword by more luck than skill. While he was still trying to regain his breath and get up, the two golems gave proof of their skill in copying, as they turned their gigantic palms at their small enemies while chanting a familiar spell.  
  
Sharp stars flew towards the dizzy Frog, but Schala moved faster than anyone could ever believe. She ran over to the knight, grabbed his shoulders and jumped aside. The stars hit the walls, thrown with such power that they buried completely in the wall.  
  
"Are you alright, Schala?!" Magus called.  
  
He threw his hand in her and the knight's direction with a few unintelligible words leaving his lips.  
  
A yellow light covered the two, an armor for extra magic resistance.  
  
"We're alright!" Schala answered, getting to her feet, "look out!"  
  
The golems shot stars in one direction each. Magus jumped aside, not in the mood for experimenting on whether his protecting magic could handle Light or not. Frog, on the other hand, chose to try something else. As the small missiles closed in, he raised the Masamune and swung it. The stars that were hit were sent back at the caster, but a couple of them reached the knight. His left shoulder and arm got hurt, but the magic wall saved him from any really bad wounds.  
  
"Are you hurt?" Schala asked, worried.  
  
"Dost not fear about my condition, my friend," Frog muttered, "powers of the world…"  
  
The curing spell made the wounds heal instantly.  
  
"We must now hurry to thy brother's aid," the knight said with a small, ironic smile as he pondered what he was saying.  
  
"Right."  
  
Schala turned to the rest of the room.  
  
Magus didn't seem in need of aid, however. Somehow he had managed to get up on the right golem's head. Thereby he fooled the other to hit its friend, while the warlock jumped to safety. Only one giant was left in one piece after that.  
  
"Frog, we'll do the blasted Spire again!" Magus called.  
  
"Cherish this one moment I follow thy order!" Frog yelled as he leaped forward, "because it will have no brothers!"  
  
"I would enjoy it, if I could believe you finally got something behind that green forehead of yours! Powers of the world…!"  
  
All three of the warriors gave relieved sighs as the last golem cracked up.  
  
"Interesting stars you had there," Magus said, checking his scythe for cuts in the edge.  
  
"I call it Sacred stars…" Schala explained, working on her breath after the intense moments.  
  
"Is anyone hurt?" the voice from the hole called, worriedly.  
  
Schala hurried back to the hole.  
  
"No, we are alright, we'll get you out of there immediately!" she told the darkness, still trying to catch her breath.  
  
"What happened to the rat Dalton?" the voice asked.  
  
Schala smiled, giving Magus a warm look.  
  
"Janus came to help me, Cered," she said.  
  
"What, Janus?" the voice said, disbelieving, "get me out of here, please!"  
  
"Allow me," Magus said and raised his scythe.  
  
The iron bars couldn't take many hits and fell into the darkness, which gave a hideous creature in return. Both Frog and Magus stepped backwards of the pure astonishment as a black, scaly body seemed to continue coming up from the hole forever, hissing wildly.  
  
The result was that a twelve feet long, black snake suddenly lay on the floor. It was a sight that would bring most people a sudden loss of consciousness without further notice.  
  
The beast rose up, hissing happily at Schala.  
  
"Hello, Molor," she smiled and stroke the spear point-shaped head, "I'm glad you're alright."  
  
She looked at her brother and Frog, especially noting that the knight seemed very skeptic as the snake turned its cold eyes at him.  
  
"There's nothing to be nervous about," the princess said, calming, "Molor is completely tame, he won't get any strange ideas."  
  
"I do wish he will not," Frog muttered.  
  
"Hmm."  
  
Magus put his scythe back into his cloak, with his eyes nailed onto the snake. Frog looked up, saw the warlock's gaze, and had to fight back a groan. Molor turned to the dark prince, and there was a sparkle in the eerily dead, yellowish eyes.  
  
"Fascinating."  
  
That was the only thing Magus said. He then reached forward and touched the black head. Molor patted back, making a noise surprisingly similar to a cat's purr. Frog had a bad feeling this was the start of a lifelong friendship, and he didn't want to stay too close to it.  
  
"Schala?" the voice from the hole called, as if Cered believed he was forgotten.  
  
She turned around again.  
  
"Yes, Cered, I'll be down there in..."  
  
"I will go," Frog said and turned away from Magus and Molor with a shudder. He couldn't stand the sight of two such creepy figures together.  
  
Schala nodded and gave Frog her hand to help him get down. He climbed into the dusk and hung for a moment in her hand, without seeing anything but darkness until Schala conjured another ball of light.  
  
She let go, and the knight landed on a dirty floor. It was a small room and in one corner, on a small heap of moldy hay a young man was sitting. He couldn't be older than a couple of years past twenty, chained to the wall by his wrists and blinking at the sudden light. His clothes were all dirty after the captivity, but below the dust and mud he wore a pair of light brown pants and a similar colored shirt without any sleeves. His shoes of choice were sandals, and his dirty hair had a red-brown color.  
  
Frog suddenly felt that there was something familiar about this young man, but couldn't pinpoint what it was no matter how it pecked at his mind.  
  
Cered's eyes finally got used to the light; now he blinked as he saw Frog.  
  
"Err... wha...?" he said, dumbstruck.  
  
"I am a... knight traveling with Schala's brother," Frog explained, calming.  
  
His tongue had almost slipped onto the word "friend".  
  
"For a moment I carried the belief that thou were a monster," Cered said.  
  
"Nay, I am a human, but I am also the product of Magus', who thou call Janus, wicked sense of what is amusing."  
  
Frog's brain finally caught up with something he'd just heard. And he found his wide lips moving into a smile.  
  
"Wait a moment," he said, "what was it that thou said as thee saw me?"  
  
Cered looked at the giant frog, confused.  
  
"I said that I thought thou were a monster..." he said.  
  
"Thou said 'thou'?"  
  
"Yes? Is there a problem?"  
  
Frog grinned.  
  
"Problem? On the contrary, my friend. Wait one moment, I will free thee from thy chains."  
  
He drew the Masamune and used two powerful slices to cut off the connected metallic rings.  
  
"Thy sword is truly granted with sharp edges," Cered said as he stood up, smiling gratefully and a bit surprised.  
  
He put his hands together and bowed from his waist, still with the iron- rings with their remaining, swinging pieces of chains on his wrists.  
  
"I thank thee," he said with a smile, "my name is Cered, guardian of the emperor's peace. I cometh from the empire of Garadia, and trusting Schala, the era in which I was born is 5300 BC. And thou art?"  
  
"My name is Frog, and I have the honor of being general of the king of Guardia's army, in the seventh century," the knight replied, friendly.  
  
Cered bowed again. Frog was still trying to remember where he had seen the man before...  
  
"Thou are certainly a great warrior, owning such a title," Cered said, impressed.  
  
"Alas, fate has brought me there," Frog said with a friendly smile.  
  
"I see you two get together quite well," Schala smiled, "that's truly nice, but we should get you out of there. Janus, would you lend Cered a hand?"  
  
"Certainly, Schala."  
  
After that Cered had grabbed Magus' hands and got lifted out of the prison, Frog jumped out without any help. Jus as he reached the above floor, Schala's friend bowed to greet Magus.  
  
"I am very glad to finally meet thee Janus, who me, Molor and the fair Schala has searched for so long. I also thank thee for helping us out of this captivity."  
  
Magus very slowly raised his hand and pinched himself over the bridge of his nose as he heard the "thee". Frog had to look away to keep from laughing.  
  
The warlock let the arm fall and looked at Cered, frowning a bit.  
  
"I thank you for that you have helped Schala," Magus said, "but haven't we meet before?"  
  
"I thought so too, but I do not know where that would be," Frog said.  
  
Cered shook his head.  
  
"I am afraid I dost not believe I have ever seen any of thee before," he said, "I am sure I would have remembered that."  
  
"Probably," Frog nodded with a glare at Magus.  
  
Cered looked at Molor, who kept at the warlock's side.  
  
"I see that my companion hath becometh a friend of thine already," the man from 5300 BC said with a smile.  
  
Magus just looked at Molor at that, who looked back with a friendly hiss. The warlock actually smiled a bit, astonishingly enough.  
  
Schala reached for Cered's right wrist.  
  
"We need to get those awful rings off," she said, concerned, "let's see..."  
  
She began to mumble in a low voice, and by the chanting her hand started to glow. As she touched the metal it melted. It didn't seem to hurt Cered at all, though. When Schala let go of him he started to massage his soar wrists.  
  
"Thou art truly my light," he said with a smile.  
  
Schala smiled back, but then she gave him a closer look.  
  
"Oh my... what have they done to you?" she said, frowning.  
  
"Just given me too little food, I will be fine," Cered calmingly said and then looked at her with a warm sparkling in his eyes, "these small wounds art nothing, hath thou forgot what happened when we fought the fourth Lavos spawn?"  
  
Schala shook her head.  
  
"Cered, please don't talk so easily about it, you could have died that time!" she said.  
  
"Nay," he said in a low voice, "I say thee again, I cannot die yet. Not before..."  
  
Schala reached out, putting her fingers on his lips and he became quiet with a nod. Frog had a feeling there was a lot that these two had left to tell, but now was certainly not the right time.  
  
"Frog," Schala said, turning to him, "could I ask of you that you heal Cered?"  
  
"Of course. Powers of the world…"  
  
Cered straightened his back as the stars fell on him and for a moment covered him with light. His thin, pale face became much more healthy- looking, too. Frog frowned. Now it was really bugging him, he did recognize Cered from somewhere.  
  
But where?  
  
"What was that?" the guardian of the emperor's peace asked, astonished looking at his hands, "was it healing magic?"  
  
"Yes," Frog friendly said, "I command the power of Water, which includes healing."  
  
"I thank thee."  
  
Cered smiled and touched his forehead, which was mostly hid behind his thick hair.  
  
"Where did my headband go?" he said, thinking aloud, "my fringe is almost hiding my eyes..."  
  
There was a ripping sound as Schala tore off the edge of her cloak.  
  
"Use this, I need new clothes anyhow," she said, "I can't fight in this stuff which Dalton forced me to put back on."  
  
"I thank thee, Schala."  
  
Cered took the piece of cloth and tied it around his head to keep the pretty long hair away. Then he stuck his hands into the dirty crown and shook around a bit.  
  
"Much better," Schala said, and Cered smiled.  
  
Frog and Magus stared, however. The red-brown hair was now pointing in all directions, held up by the headband.  
  
"Oh, my," Frog said, "Cered, thou art..."  
  
"Crono's ancestor," Magus ended the sentence.  
  
"Who is Crono?" Cered asked, raising his eyebrows.  
  
"That will be revealed in time," Frog said, suddenly remembering where they all were, "but for the moment we must haste to land this fortress."  
  
"Yes, that's right," Schala said, "come on, let's go."  
  
They hurried back through the corridors. Molor seemed to be fine, despite the time in prison. But on the other hand he was a snake, and he looked like the kind of creature that enjoyed darkness.  
  
The servants and guards were very relieved to see everyone back in one piece, especially Schala.  
  
"Now we'll get out of here," she calmed the men and women, "where's the machine room?"  
  
A few minutes later Schala and her friends stood in another dusky room. It was empty except for the cylinder, which stood in the middle of the room, connecting the floor with the ceiling. The cylinder was glowing with an eerie, green light, and there was a soft buzz coming from it. Schala stepped forward and put her hands on the source of the sound and light.  
  
"Yes, it's me," she whispered to the cylinder, strangely calming, "now do as I tell you. Land this fortress somewhere not too far from the human town, carefully."  
  
The buzz increased. Somehow it sounded happy.  
  
"Good work, be careful," Schala said with a kind smile.  
  
Frog could feel how the fortress steadily sunk to the ground, but he couldn't explain how he felt it.  
  
After about half an hour of waiting, the room (and probably also the whole fortress as well) crumbled as the ground was reached. But surprisingly enough, everything kept in place; it had landed just right to keep balance.  
  
"Good," Schala said to the cylinder, then turned to Magus, "Janus, could you break the glass for me?"  
  
As the scythe sent pieces of glass flying through the half room a small, glowing stone flew out of the cylinder with its thin chain as a tail behind it. Schala took it in her hands, smiling. It was her pendant.  
  
"Yes, I have missed you too," she said and put the chain over her head.  
  
The magic stone glowed one last time, somehow pleasant, and then stopped to shed light.  
  
"So that was Dalton's source of power," Magus concluded.  
  
"Yes. And that is why he couldn't use its power to harm you, Janus, my pendant wouldn't have allowed that. Me, Molor and Cered returned here to look for it, that's why we were captured by Dalton," Schala explained, "I thought that if I gave it to someone who could pass it on to their children, it might help you find me if you also were looking."  
  
"You still need to leave it to someone," Magus said, "it must be owned by the queens of Guardia to let history close."  
  
Schala nodded, a bit sadly.  
  
"I'm aware of that. Now then, let's get everyone out of here."  
  
One hour later all the humans were finally out, and a few scouts had also left the fortress. The five time-travelers were left alone at the beach, as everyone else ran away as soon as possible.  
  
"It must be destroyed, 'tis a foul contraption," Cered said, gravely watching the silent fortress.  
  
Its flashing light had stopped, the lamps had surely also been powered by Schala's jewelry.  
  
"It's nothing," Magus said with a thoughtful sneer, "I will be able to take care of it when I've had some rest."  
  
"Magus," Frog said.  
  
"What is it now?"  
  
"Thou indebted me to help thee find thy sister. May I now return to my own time?"  
  
Magus coldly smiled down at the amphibian.  
  
"Would I stop you from going? I'll be glad never to see you again."  
  
He raised his hands to open a Gate.  
  
"Wait," Schala said.  
  
"What is it now?" Magus and Frog said at the same time.  
  
"To find you, Janus, was the greatest victory I'll ever experience," the princess said, "but Lavos' presence still causes problems through history, and there are a lot more of his spawns left to be killed. What I'm trying to say is that at least mine and Cered's journey must continue, and I would like to ask both of you to join us."  
  
"Of course I'll come with you," Magus said, concluding.  
  
Frog hesitated.  
  
"I would gladly lendeth thee my help, Schala, but my liege need me. Thy brother's former comrades might attack in my absence. And anyhow, I could not leave for such a quest without permission. At least not unless some vile warlock forced me to."  
  
Magus ignored the glare. Frog shook his head.  
  
"My wish is to help thee, but first I must seek out Flea and Slash, and ask my liege if I can leave."  
  
"Then we will help thee conquer thy enemies," Cered said.  
  
"I thank thee, but I could not ask of thee to interrupt thy journey..."  
  
Magus snorted.  
  
"This will take forever. We don't even need the reptile, so why discuss it?"  
  
"But he is a strong warrior," Schala pointed out before the fighting had time to begin, "and he seems to be the only one of us who can use healing magic. You have to admit that, Janus."  
  
"Humph."  
  
Schala turned to Frog again.  
  
"Look, if you want to help us, of course we want to help you," she said with a warm smile, "you've already done a lot for me, Cered and Molor without asking anything of us. Allow us to at least return the favor."  
  
Frog smiled.  
  
"'Tis an honor that thy wish is to help me, Schala."  
  
"Yes, yes!" Magus said, irritated, "we'll all help each other, let's just settle it!"  
  
"My, thou art impatient today," Frog smirked.  
  
"You're just getting on my nerves, even more than usual." 


	7. You didn't think it was over yet, did yo...

~*~ Chapter 7 Planning~*~  
  
The five travelers set a camp on the beach, since it began to get dark. Assembling some of the grey pieces of wood on the beach they got a nice fire, too. Cered made a simple spear of a long branch and managed to catch some fishes, which he roasted over the fire.  
  
"It makes me angry knowing that the rat Dalton destroyed our weapons," Cered sighed as he picked tiny bones out of his meal, giving the dark fortress a dark glance, "alas, nothing can be done. At least my grandfather's katanas art safe in my time."  
  
"Only a coward would destroy the weapons of his enemies," Frog snorted.  
  
"Suits him right," Schala said.  
  
Magus took a second fish. He just moved his fingers a little, and the dead animal was suddenly cut in two pieces. Molor got one of them, and swallowed it whole.  
  
"What is the weapon thou use, Schala?" Frog asked.  
  
"A staff," she told him, "I never liked sharp things."  
  
"Suits thee right."  
  
Magus watched the fire, thoughtful. When he spoke, it was so sudden it almost startled everyone else.  
  
"You know what, Frog, I just started thinking about something."  
  
The knight was one inch from saying something like "Thinking? Astonishing!". But he didn't, by no other means than the respect for Schala.  
  
"What would that be?" he said instead.  
  
"Considering the fact that you were last seen being abducted by the Prince of Darkness, beaten half to death, how will you explain to your friends how you can return only a few days later without a scratch?"  
  
"By all means, every man and woman knows that I can use the blessed magic of healing," Frog said.  
  
"Yes, but would the undead Magus just let you go? Doesn't it sound a bit suspicious?"  
  
Short silence.  
  
"I see," Frog finally said, "but this query is mine; why would thee care, Magus?"  
  
"I'm not worried about you," he snorted, "but since my sister will be there too, I'm thinking about her safety."  
  
"Aye, a few hours with thy sister has already made thee almost human," Frog said, teasingly.  
  
"Humph."  
  
"It sounds like you're not coming with us, Janus," Schala pointed out, carefully.  
  
He shook his head.  
  
"No. I will come later, it would be most unwise of me to show up near that castle."  
  
"I see..."  
  
"I think I'll stay here and take care of the fortress while Frog explain what happened," the warlock said, watching the fire, "you can call for me when you go hunting for Flea and Slash."  
  
"So what would be the explanation?" Cered asked.  
  
"In your condition that day, you would certainly not have been able to heal yourself," Magus said, thoughtfully resting his chin on a fist, "and the Prince of Darkness wouldn't have helped you, now would he?"  
  
"No," Frog concluded.  
  
"So how on earth would you have been able to escape those dark clutches?" the warlock asked.  
  
"Somebody helped thee?" Cered suggested.  
  
Magus nodded.  
  
"Smart boy," he said, ignoring the fact that Cered was in the warlock's own age, "I believe that would seem possible. It is well known that undead aren't as strong as they were when they lived, so an undead Dark Prince could be stopped even without the Masamune."  
  
"So you mean that me and Cered should act heroes?" Schala said.  
  
"Yes."  
  
Schala shook her head.  
  
"I've got a bad feeling about that," she said, "I cannot walk around telling people I've defeated my own brother."  
  
"That is certainly something that they must be unaware of," Magus said, almost sharply looking at her.  
  
"I understand that. But telling somebody I've fought you... no."  
  
She shook her head again.  
  
"I just couldn't."  
  
Such sibling-love was truly rare, but it was understandable since she'd spent several years worrying about her brother. Schala obviously didn't want to break anything at all.  
  
"I see," Magus said, slowly, "would you bear to say that I just stepped out of a strange, dark portal, and at the sight of you just threw Frog at you and disappeared again?"  
  
"Fascinating," Frog said, "where is thy pride, Magus?"  
  
"What do I care? They all think that I am dead anyway."  
  
"It sounds much better," Schala said.  
  
Magus shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"Look, Schala," he said, "when you take Frog back, don't try to defend me whatever the people in 600 AD might say. My reputation is far too dark to lighten."  
  
"Alright, Janus," his sister said with a sigh.  
  
She didn't ask what he had done to get such a dark reputation, and neither Magus himself nor Frog felt like telling her. It would without any doubt be better if she didn't know all the details.  
  
"Now let us think this through thoroughly and wise," Cered said, "we know now what to tell them, but how will we proceed after that?"  
  
"We should start with searching out the lair of Flea and Slash," Frog said.  
  
He became thoughtful.  
  
"Wait, it now cometh to my mind... when will we show up?"  
  
Magus nodded.  
  
"Surprisingly smart thinking," he admitted, "the soldiers saw me and you disappear through a Gate, that would be 'a strange, dark portal'. For someone that doesn't know time travel, that could just as well be a door to another place or dimension of some kind."  
  
"And if we saw you as you stepped out of one," Schala said, nodding, "you would have escaped through that 'warp-door', ending up in the place where me and Cered saw you."  
  
"Adding what the soldiers tell, it will seem quite possible," Magus submitted, "you only have to make sure that they've already left their rapport, and there'll surely be no doubts."  
  
"Due to my liege's diary," Frog said, "the troop reached the castle on the tenth of March. Therefore we should preferably be at the castle one or two days later. Let us sayeth that we met in the south forest, close to Porre. 'Tis a two days walk from there to the castle."  
  
"Careful," Magus said with a cold little smile, "your brain might break with all this thinking."  
  
"Just giveth me one more reason, dark wizard, and I will gladly do something about thy own brain!" Frog snapped back, giving the warlock a dark glare.  
  
"Oh, how morbid!" Magus sneered, "I'd ask Molor to eat you if I weren't minding his health, you pest!"  
  
"Why thee...!"  
  
The two fighters looked up in surprise because of the sudden laughter.  
  
"I'm sorry," Schala smiled and covered her mouth with her hand, "it's just that..."  
  
She started laughing again, and couldn't continue to speak. Cered replaced her:  
  
"Thee sound just like two friends of mine. Oh my..."  
  
He and Schala leaned against each other, shaking of laughter.  
  
"Thee act exactly like Leon and Shadarak! I ask thee to forgive me and Schala for this..."  
  
"Humph."  
  
After a few tries, Schala managed to take a deep breath and stop laughing.  
  
"Alright," she said, "we've got the date, time and the full story. So when we've convinced your king and queen that you haven't been traveling together with my brother for a while, we'll come back here to fetch Janus and then start looking for this Flea and Slash, right, Frog?"  
  
"Yes, indeed. No, wait..."  
  
Frog slapped his forehead.  
  
"It will not work. I was badly hurt when the soldiers last saw me, and those injuries could not have healed normally in just a couple of days."  
  
Magus smiled coldly then, with that evil, alarming sparkle in his eyes.  
  
"I was hoping that you would think of that yourself," he said, soft as silk.  
  
"Oh, no!" Frog exclaimed, with one hand on Masamune's hilt, "perish the thought, I warneth thee!"  
  
The warlock shook his head, and said:  
  
"You misunderstand. I can just restore the wounds you had with a simple spell. It might ache a little, but not as much as it did when you got them in the first place."  
  
"I dost not trust thee."  
  
"It's your life... Schala and Cered might of course 'find you' a couple of weeks later, but knowing your care for queen Leene, I believe you wouldn't want to have her crying for two weeks unnecessarily."  
  
"Why thee... I... she..."  
  
Frog finally gave up and sighed.  
  
"Alright. I giveth," he grumbled. 


	8. Well, at least they didn't have to searc...

~*~Chapter 8 Return and attack~*~  
  
The next morning, they prepared the theatre.  
  
"We'll go to 5300 BC and get equipped as soon as we've talked to the king and queen in 600 AD and Frog is healed, how does that sound?" Schala said.  
  
"It will be fine," Frog said, "there should be no fights in my time before we find the two villains."  
  
"And we will also go to the End of Time before we start hunting," Magus said, resolute, "I don't like the idea of you walking around wielding an unknown power, Schala."  
  
She nodded with a smile.  
  
"Alright, Janus."  
  
Magus turned to Frog, raising his hands.  
  
"Now for making you a mess again. This won't hurt a bit... I think."  
  
An eerie, black-purple light erupted from his hands.  
  
A moment later, Schala was bandaging the knight's resurrected wounds with pieces of her cloak.  
  
"'Won't hurt a bit'! " Frog croaked, "lucky I never put any trust in thee anyway!"  
  
"I told you I wasn't completely sure," Magus said with a cold smile and one hand on Molor's head.  
  
"Was thee forced to hurt my leg again?"  
  
"It's impossible to reset a body partly."  
  
"Be not tormented by any worries, my friend," Cered said, "I will carry thee."  
  
He said that as Frog failed to stand up.  
  
"I wish thee did not hath so much trouble just to helpeth me..." Frog said, a bit embarrassed.  
  
Magus muttered something, but Frog didn't hear the words. It was probably better that way, anyhow.  
  
"I just hope that I will be able to open a Gate leading to the fifth century now that Dalton is dead," Schala said, frowning.  
  
"Surely," Cered said, encouraging.  
  
She smiled a little and raised her hands. As she started to mumble, a Gate obediently open in front of her.  
  
"Ha! It worked!" she said, truly relieved.  
  
"Then let us go," Cered smiled and carefully lifted the wounded Frog.  
  
"See you earlier, Janus," Schala said with a small laughter.  
  
He smiled and nodded. Then he got out of sight since the dark corridor with its flashing light swallowed the three travelers. As they stepped out they found themselves in a forest.  
  
"At least thee can see the castle's spires above the treetops over there," Frog said and pointed with a shaking hand, "but art we in the right time?"  
  
Schala put her fingertips on her forehead.  
  
"Almost," she said, "it is the thirteenth of March, 601 AD."  
  
"That will be fine. Let us go."  
  
Cered and Schala started walking towards the castle, and soon found the road leading through the forest. Once there had been loads of monsters around, but they had all been thrown out as the army of the Mystics fell. The only thing that could possibly stop a traveler nowadays would be the castle guards. There were two of them guarding the entrance to the front gate, as usual. And they knew their profession.  
  
"Halt! Who goes there?" one of them called as Schala and Cered stepped out of the forest.  
  
"We're friends!" Schala called back.  
  
"Identify yourselves!"  
  
However the identification became less interesting as the visitors came closer.  
  
"Wha... general Frog?!"  
  
"Good morning..." the knight whispered and managed to smile a little.  
  
A short while later he was in a bed in the healing quarters and completely surrounded by all the happy soldiers in the castle. Even king Guardia XXI and queen Leene was there, the later one sobbing of relief.  
  
"Oh Frog, we were all so worried about you!" she said and put her fine hand on his shoulder, "I was so scared you were..."  
  
"I ask thee to forgive me this disgrace," Frog said, looking away, "I should not have kept thee worried, my liege."  
  
"Frog, there's nothing you should be ashamed of!" Leene smiled through the tears and tried to dry her cheeks with a handkerchief.  
  
The king turned to the two other time travelers and spoke.  
  
"What happened, helpers? Were did you find him?"  
  
"We were in the south forest," Cered said, sparing Schala the lie, "when suddenly a curious dark hole opened up in the day's clean air. Out from it stepped a pale man with a blood-red cloak, carrying thy general. At the sight of Schala and myself, he threw the wounded knight at us and departed without a word."  
  
"That must have been lord Magus!" the king said and frowned with a confused look, "but why would that demon give Frog up just like that?"  
  
"Aye, my wit is not enough..." Cered said and shook his head.  
  
"Thank you so much for bringing him here, anyhow," His Majesty smiled, "tell me, your clothes makes me wonder..."  
  
"'Tis true, Your Majesty," Frog said with a small smile, "in my far- reaching travels together with Sir Crono, I had the joy of at least meeting miss Schala once."  
  
The princess of Zeal smiled a bit. The king nodded.  
  
"I had the feeling you weren't from around here," he said, then turned around, "now Frog, could you tell us what happened at Ozzie's island?"  
  
Leene held up a hand.  
  
"Dear, he should rest. Talk with him tomorrow instead," she gravely said.  
  
"No, my liege, allow me to shed the little light I can provide upon this twisted story," Frog said.  
  
The queen hesitated, but nodded in the end.  
  
"Very well, Frog, but do not strain yourself."  
  
"Of course not, my liege. My memory is not to be fully recalled, but I remember that the ground opened to swallow me as we landed on the island..."  
  
"I am so sorry," the knight captain sadly said, "we couldn't help you. Neither then nor when the undead monster-king Magus abducted you..."  
  
"I know that thee did what thee could," Frog said and managed to smile, "the foe was too clever for thee, and thee could not have doneth more than what thee did. As the trap triggered, I fell into a huge cavern, and my leg was hurt as I hit the ground. And even as I tried to stand up, I was attacketh by a fire-spell. Most unpleasantly, I found out that the foe was none other than the magician Flea, whom we thought were dead. And..."  
  
He started to cough, and one of the doctors hurried over to him with a glass with medicine. The memory of Magus' potion almost made Frog shiver, but the drink he got this time tasted heavenly compared to what the warlock had provided. As soon as he had emptied the glass, he could speak again.  
  
"And I had to suffer the knowledge of that in Flea's body the swordsman Slash resided as well..."  
  
'How to continue?' Frog thought, 'I should wisely suffer memory-loss about how I ended up in Magus' clutches, but Schala...'  
  
She looked completely calm, but there was a small sparkle of pain in her eyes, unquestionable due to the titles her brother had received. Frog fought back a deep sigh and continued his story:  
  
"Wounded, I could not provide defense against my foes. The next thing I can recall is that I was floating in thin air, held up by Flea's wicked magic. The dark magician had put a snare around my throat, but as he was about to kill me... alas..."  
  
He hoped that he managed to look confused enough.  
  
"... I do not understand, but suddenly there was a lightning… the dark lord Magus cut off the snare and brought me to safety. The last thing I remember is that Flea yelled curses, and that the warlock chanted a spell to attack his own comrades. 'Tis truly a riddle, but it seems almost like the Prince of Darkness helped me."  
  
All the "normal" people in the room exchanged bewildered glances. Schala and Cered looked at Frog, wondering. In the princess' eyes were also a sense of gratitude that she fought to hide from everyone else.  
  
"Why on earth would he help the only one who can wield the Masamune?" the knight captain finally said, totally blank.  
  
"Alas, I dost not know that," Frog said.  
  
"Hey," one of the soldiers said, "that monster was killed by Sir Frog and Sir Crono a year ago, wasn't he? My grandma used to tell me about sinners' souls which wander this world, trying to make up for their crimes."  
  
"Sounds a bit weird," another soldier said, "but he was a weird man, so it would be possible, right?"  
  
"Sure," a third man smiled, "but he's got a list of crimes that will keep him stuck like that for at least two thousands years, if that's true."  
  
Frog started coughing again, but this time, he did it on purpose. Queen Leene waved with her hands.  
  
"Enough!" she demanded, "Frog needs to rest, so everybody will leave now, except the doctors!"  
  
She more or less pushed the crowd up the stairs and pass the "balcony", out through the door. But before she was shooed away Schala touched Frog's shoulder with a warm smile upon her lips. He smiled back, then the princess of Zeal was gone.  
  
"Here, Sir", another one of the doctors said, holding a smaller glass filled with a white liquid, "you should rest a while; this is a sleep- potion."  
  
"I thank thee."  
  
A few minutes after he had drunken the potion, Frog started to feel drowsy. With great relief he allowed himself to lean back into a deep, strengthening sleep.  
  
He awoke in an evening to find Schala and Cered once again at his side. The princess looked over her shoulder to check were the doctors were before she whispered:  
  
"You defended Janus, thank you."  
  
"Not because he deserves it, my friend, but thee should not hath suffered to hear his name be told with such loathing," the knight replied, friendly.  
  
"You're so kind, Frog," she smiled, "how do you feel? You've slept through a whole night and day."  
  
"Much better, I thank thee."  
  
Frog wasn't surprised at all that he had slept so long. He had gone through some hard days with little sleep.  
  
"Excuse me, but I still think that Frog should get his well-deserved rest," the voice of queen Leene said, not unfriendly.  
  
She stood on the balcony, to the right of the stairs. Schala straightened up and smiled a bit.  
  
"Of course, Your Majesty," she said.  
  
She and Cered exited the room together with the queen.  
  
"I still cannot thank you enough for helping Frog," Leene said with a warm smile, "I do not know how we would go on here in the castle without him."  
  
"Ah," Schala kindly said, "there is nothing you should thank me and Cered about, Frog has helped us..."  
  
There was a half-strangled scream to be heard from behind them. The two women and the man spun around and ran back without hesitating one single moment.  
  
The three doctors and the two nurses were lying by one of the short walls of the healing quarters. In the other end of the room Flea was standing with a thin sword in one hand and Frog's throat in the other. The Masamune was lying on the floor a few yards away, but the knight could not call it to his hand since he was busy struggling for air and anyhow he probably wouldn't have been able to hold it.  
  
"Frog!" Leene screamed.  
  
Schala and Cered hurriedly moved in between her and the intruders as Flea turned his head by the screech.  
  
"Queen Leene, what a pleasure to meet you!" the magician sneered, "won't you join us as me and my dear friend Slash makes a brochette of your beloved knight here?"  
  
"Let him go!" three voices called in unison.  
  
The pink eyebrows went upwards.  
  
"Who are you two freaks?" Flea wondered, looking at the princess and the guardian of the emperor's peace.  
  
"Who cares?" Slash snorted, using the same tongue and lips.  
  
"Schala, give me cover!" Cered muttered.  
  
She nodded, determined.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Lightning!"  
  
As Flea and Slash rather surprised danced out of the way for the bolts Cered jumped over the fence and rushed forward, trying to reach Frog. But he had to take a leap backwards to avoid the sword aiming for his chest.  
  
The sound of the lightning-attack had been loud enough to call for half the castle. Many soldiers hurried into the room, but nobody dared crossing the stairs. Even the king rushed in. One glance at the scene made him try to get Leene to leave.  
  
"Dear, it's not safe!" he said, grabbing her shoulders.  
  
"I'm not leaving Frog!" she snapped back.  
  
"How sweet!" Flea sneered, "but I could never stand romantic stuff."  
  
Frog did not see the sword turn to point at him; he was still trying to survive the tiny stream of oxygen. Cered automatically reached for his waist only to remember that he was unarmed, Schala raised her hands for a desperate magic-attack...  
  
Suddenly the room was showered in a rain of broken glass and Slash had to make the shared body leap away from a deadly edge that was about to cause major damage. A pair of leather-boots hit the ground, a blood red cloak fell to wave behind a tall man as he straightened up with the pieces of the broken window still hitting the floor around his feet. The sinking sun outside painted flames on a scythe's long, sharp blade.  
  
"Put the damn reptile down," Magus said, cold as ice.  
  
  
  
(Betcha didn't see that one coming… ;) Actually I guess you all did. author's note) 


	9. Foreshadowing?

~*~Chapter 9 A trial~*~  
  
There was a frozen moment when nobody even breathed. Then Flea awoke from the surprise.  
  
"Oh my, you are determined to continue your stupid career as a hero, then?" he sneered.  
  
"No," Magus coldly said, "but nobody is going to kill Frog except me, and today is not the day."  
  
"Why not? Here, take him!"  
  
Flea threw the knight at Magus and leaped forward, raising the sword. Somehow the warlock managed to catch Frog and parry the sword with his scythe, but it was obvious that it was quite a challenge. He drew backwards, one hand equipped with his weapon and the other holding the wounded knight. The humans in the room watched in amaze and fear as the magician and swordsman made their body slowly follow the warlock.  
  
"Aren't you going to chant another Dark Matter, cutie?" Flea mocked.  
  
Magus suddenly gave a cold smile and shook his head. He threw his scythe on the floor.  
  
"What?" Slash said, on guard, "giving up so soon?"  
  
"No, I just thought that I would make this battle a bit more fair."  
  
He grabbed the end of his cloak and shook it a little. From out of the cloth crawled...  
  
"Oh, I didn't know that you had children, lord Magus," Flea said with high eyebrows as Molor raised his head and hissed warningly.  
  
The crowd upon the balcony drew back, all except the grim Schala. She didn't utter a single word, keeping her brother's warning in mind.  
  
"Molor, bring him away from here," Magus hissed.  
  
Before anyone even had understood what happened the warlock had given Frog to the snake, who put a part of his own body around the wounded one. The next moment Molor was halfway up the stair, hissing triumphantly. He put Frog down, prepared for both defending the knight and rushing to Magus' aid. Cered found himself by one of the walls, by the shivering doctors and nurses. He hadn't even noticed that he had moved.  
  
The scythe floated up above the floor and Magus grabbed it, smiling coldly.  
  
"Wimp," Flea snorted.  
  
Magus didn't answer. He attacked instead.  
  
The room's furniture were soon nothing more than pieces of smashed wood and torn clothing. Flea and Slash had the advantage of that one mind could concentrate on fighting, and the other chanted spells. However, Magus had his great skills in both fighting and magic, and his special magic-defense was a source of trouble. The warlock chanted different spells all the time, always changing his weak point. It made the female-looking magician confused in the long run.  
  
"Dark powers of the world, I dare to ask of you to lend me strength!" Magus called after being hit by a massive flame when it was a lightning-attack he'd just used, "worch crahela krun shar retetack!"  
  
"Idiot!" Slash snarled and jumped away from the Dark Mist exploding from the warlock's hands.  
  
He managed to avoid the big, black cloud. Instead a pile of wood that once had been a bed got turned into smoking dust.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Lightning!" Flea chanted, by now too frustrated to think.  
  
Magus mockingly ducked with a scornful sneer and the bolts hit the wall behind him, making the whole balcony crumble. Most of the people up there lost their balance and fell; Schala staggered towards the stair. She could have fallen, but got a grip of the fence. In order to keep standing, she had to take a few steps downstairs. That brought her to Frog and Molor.  
  
"Are you alright?" she muttered to the knight, behind her the sound of another of Flea's snarled prayers were to be heard.  
  
This time, the magician was asking the right element for power.  
  
"I am fine, thou better return..." Frog began.  
  
He was interrupted as Flea suddenly spun around, pointing at him.  
  
"Hey you, slimy boy! Catch this, worch crahela krun shar retetack!"  
  
A second dark cloud rushed through the air. Molor hissed a warning, Schala raised her hands…  
  
"Schala, no!"  
  
Magus leaped towards the stair, in the way of the evil magic.  
  
The cloud hit him, getting stuck onto his back even as he was in the air.  
  
The weight made him fall, and he crashed upon another pile of broken wood with a screech of pain.  
  
A shocked squeak left Schala's lips, Molor hissed violently. Many of the Guardia population gasped in surprise at the warlock's action.  
  
"Now that was unexpected," Slash said, raising the eyebrows.  
  
Waving with the right hand, Flea made the Dark Mist rise towards the ceiling. It carried Magus with it.  
  
He had dropped the scythe and now desperately tried to rip the dark material off his back, his red eyes wild with pain.  
  
"Nothing to worry about, dear lord Magus," Flea merrily said, "I'll make sure it doesn't ruin your precious cloak. I'm a bit worried about your flesh, though... oh, that hurt, doesn't it?"  
  
Magus froze completely of the agony, the skin of his face strained as he tried to fight back a tortured scream. Molor rushed towards Flea and Slash, but stopped dead as the right hand waved warningly.  
  
"You seem to somehow like him, you big worm," Flea said, "I do advise you not to do matters worse."  
  
The magician and the swordsman's body turned to the warlock again. The prisoner wasn't struggling anymore, the intense pain almost made it impossible for him to move. His hands barely twitched, his mouth partly open in a silent scream of agony.  
  
"What a pretty little sight, isn't it, Slash?" Flea said.  
  
"Indeed," the swordsman smirked.  
  
Flea mockingly waved with a finger at the paralyzed warlock, who stared at his tormentors with his eyes burning with pain and hatred.  
  
"Now don't give me that look, boy," the magician snorted, as if talking to a child, "you just have to bear it when you don't listen to us. What did we tell you about traitors?"  
  
"Let him go!"  
  
Schala's fists were shaking in her anger.  
  
"You heard me," she snapped, "let him go, right now!"  
  
Magus managed to wildly shook his head, but Schala ignored him. Everybody in the room looked at her in amaze or worry.  
  
"This might not be the right moment for asking this," Slash slowly said, "but who the hell are you?"  
  
"Who the hell are you to torture this man?" Schala snapped back.  
  
Silence. Magus even seemed to forget that a black cloud was eating his back as he looked at the blue-haired woman. Schala only waited a second before she moved.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Light!" she called, throwing one of her hands towards Magus, "laohn sha nebal!"  
  
A flat, round projectile, as big as a man's head left her hand and rushed through the air. It went straight into Magus' chest and came out on the other side without leaving as much as a scratch. But as the Dark Mist was penetrated it disappeared.  
  
The warlock would have fallen, but Schala slowly moved her hand downwards and following her movement Magus floated to the floor. He immediately tried to stand up, but not even his arms could bear him and he heavily fell back.  
  
Schala jumped over the fence and ran over to her brother's side, resolutely facing Flea and Slash without even the slightest grain of fear. Molor rushed over to her as well, hissing in rage.  
  
"Do I get this straight?" Flea said, most skeptic, "you are actually defending The Dark Lord Magus?"  
  
"Move..." Magus croaked, "don't do..."  
  
Schala didn't answer him.  
  
"Fighting, whatever, fine!" she growled, "torturing, no!"  
  
"Oh, that's deep," Slash snorted.  
  
He looked thoughtful, at least the body which he shared looked that way.  
  
"Wait a moment," the swordsman slowly said, frowning, "did he call you Schala?"  
  
"My name is not important," the woman snapped, "there is no reason for doing something like that, attaching a Dark Mist upon anybody!"  
  
Schala was shivering with rage. Flea and Slash raised their eyebrows again.  
  
"Reason?" Slash repeated.  
  
"You want a reason?" Flea said.  
  
Frog looked at Magus and saw a paralyzing fear rise in his otherwise cold eyes. The warlock tried to speak, but his lips seemed numb.  
  
"Would that be only one reason?" Slash said, mockingly rubbing the chin, "my, that's a hard one. Let's see, mine and Flea's first reason would be that he is nothing but a plain traitor. But there is so many other reasons to why that man should suffer."  
  
"You seem to be such a kind-hearted type," Flea said, sneering, "so maybe you would prefer the 'kind' reasons instead?"  
  
'He really is afraid that Schala will despiseth him!' Frog thought, 'oh my... I musteth..."  
  
He tried to stand up, to think of something to say which could stop Flea from keep talking. But his legs were too weak, and it was like his brain was drained of all ideas. And it seemed as nobody else could help either. Cered just stood by the wall, like a statue.  
  
"Where to start?" Flea thoughtfully said, "how about the story of how he killed the hero Cyrus and turned his best friend Glenn into a Frog?"  
  
There was a lot of half-strangled, shocked yells to be heard from the Guardia population in the room. Frog closed his eyes upon the painful memory and put a hand on his forehead.  
  
He hadn't told them, through the years… he just hadn't been able to tell anyone… Leene and everyone else had still hoped that Cyrus was alive, still on the search for some way of finally defeating the Mystics. That he had passed on the sacred Masamune to a warrior worthy of protecting the kingdom in the hero's absence. But now the merciful lie was shattered.  
  
Schala didn't move.  
  
"Ah, how it still hurts our brave knight over there," Flea said and pointed at Frog, "how Cyrus desperately attacked to give his friend time to flee, getting killed and barbequed with nothing gained, nothing at all."  
  
Schala didn't move.  
  
"And how about the war against the humans?" the magician continued, "will we ever know how many innocent people were slaughtered by a move of his fingers? How many houses that were robbed by the Mystics? What sweet memories, isn't it, Slash?"  
  
Schala didn't move.  
  
"Yes indeed," the swordsman sneered, "in this whole world, you will nowhere find a guiltier man, lady."  
  
Schala didn't move, but there was a tear falling from her cheek.  
  
"What, do you even cry for his crimes?" Flea said, rather astounded, "what are you, an angel or what?"  
  
"No."  
  
Schala took a step forward, and her voice was colder than ice.  
  
"Don't... no... don't, Schala..." Magus weakly whispered, hardly able to produce any sound at all.  
  
"I am not an angel," she said, shaking with anger, "and I am aware that the one you call the dark lord Magus isn't either. I am aware that he has done a lot of horrible things. But I do not care."  
  
There was another frozen moment, and this one was much longer than the last. Schala took in a deep breath, watching Flea and Slash with outmost loathing.  
  
"I do not care what he has done," she said, "it was the monsters like you who turned him into the dark lord, when I couldn't protect him. He is my brother, and I love him what ever his crimes might be."  
  
Not even the dust moved.  
  
"Anyone who wish to hurt him will have to fight me first," Schala finally said, raising her empty hands.  
  
"This must be the most sick things I've ever heard!" Flea snorted.  
  
Schala gave a very small, cold smile.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Light…" she said, dangerously soft.  
  
"Not in here!" Cered screamed, obviously feeling what she had in store and not too fond of the idea.  
  
"Pipe down!" Schala snarled.  
  
Using her hands, she quickly drew a glowing circle in the air in front of her.  
  
"Lateya schalon na vysal!" she called.  
  
Flea and Slash weren't prepared for what she sent their way, and very few others were ready for it either. From the circle, a massive beam of light erupted at the intruder's shared body. Together with half the wall they were thrown towards the horizon, high above the treetops.  
  
Schala dropped to her knees, gulping for air. She hurriedly turned to Magus and carefully put her hand on his sweat soaked cheek, with tears in her eyes. He was about to fall into unconsciousness, with his hidden wounds probably making Frog's ones seem like simple bruises.  
  
"You shouldn't have... told them," he croaked, his unsteady breath making a wheezing sound, "now they'll kill... you too..."  
  
Schala slowly shook her head and tried to dry the sweat from his forehead with her hand. Thin threads of his blue hair were pasted onto his cheeks, the red color of his eyes weakly flickering.  
  
"Nobody will kill me, and not you either," Schala whispered, "nobody will ever hurt you again, Janus, I promise..."  
  
"Schala, please... escape..."  
  
"No. I won't leave you, not ever."  
  
With a shivering pant from his lips Magus' eyes turned to the inside of his head, and he became still. It was almost impossible to see that his chest was still moving slightly as he breathed. Schala sighed and almost lazily touched his hair, shaking her head. Molor slowly crawled over to Magus other side and lowered his big, flat head to the warlock's chest with a sad, growling sound. Cered walked across the spoiled room and sat down beside Schala, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. She closed her eyes and leaned against him.  
  
"I should have helped…" Cered whispered, "I am so sorry, Schala…"  
  
"No… it wasn't your…" the blue-haired woman faintly whispered, but her voice trailed off.  
  
Cered said nothing more, helplessly stroking her hair.  
  
Everyone in the room knew that somebody had to say it, but somehow, nobody wanted to. Finally, the knight captain cleared his throat.  
  
"Your Majesty, how should we proceed?" he asked.  
  
King Guardia XXI rubbed his forehead, most concerned.  
  
"Oh, what a mess!" he sighed.  
  
"Your Majesty!"  
  
Frog managed to stand up, leaning on the fence. There was an almost desperate determination in his eyes and voice.  
  
"Your Majesty, I musteth speak for the mercy upon this man," he said.  
  
Everybody looked at him, surprised. He continued, sounding almost furious.  
  
"'Tis true, I am Glenn, Sir Cyrus' friend, and what the rat Flea told is the painful truth. But alas, Magus hast risketh his life, two times, to save me, even though I cannot fully understand his reasons. And by the evil magician's own words, the dark lord hast turned his back at the Mystics. Therefore, I beg of thee to show mercy!"  
  
"I agree with Frog!"  
  
Everyone spun around to stare at the one who had spoken.  
  
"My liege...?" Frog gasped.  
  
"He came here, knowing that if he got captured he would be executed," queen Leene continued, "maybe he didn't show up with the one plan to save Frog, but he came! And also, I say that we must respect this kindhearted woman..."  
  
She pointed at Schala.  
  
"... Who was willing to risk her life for the dark lord. I do not care if lord Magus came to help her or to save Frog or had other ideas, what happened here before our own eyes happened and he could have died trying to protect both of them! I will not hear any rejects, we simply cannot harm this man!"  
  
"I thank you," Schala said, with tears in her beautiful eyes, "I thank you so much...! But..."  
  
She put her hand on Magus' pale cheek.  
  
"My brother is so gravely wounded, I fear that... Frog, please, you must help him!"  
  
'If I only hath not allowed him to restore my wounds!' the knight thought.  
  
But he staggered down the stair, and then two of the soldiers hurried to his side to help him across the floor.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Water!" Frog called, on the brink of starting to cough again, "na matala sela! Blast it! Na…!"  
  
Nobody even thought about his swearing. The few stars that the knight managed to conjure disappeared before they had even touched Magus' chest.  
  
"My power is not enough..." Frog concluded, looking away.  
  
Schala buried her face into her hands, Cered's grip of her shoulders tightened.  
  
"Wait," the knight said, with growing hope, "if thee could travel to 1000 AD and bring young Marle here, she might be able to help him!"  
  
The blue-haired woman stood up, her eyes glistening with hope.  
  
"Then you must show me the way," she said, "we..."  
  
"No, wait!" the king exclaimed, "Sir Crono went by here four days ago when you where away, Frog, and he's on a journey together with miss Marle and miss Lucca, we don't know where they are..."  
  
"Do you know somebody else?" Schala hurriedly asked Frog.  
  
"Robo... but his future was changed as Lavos was defeated, I dost not know where to find him then... but Ayla! Ayla lives in 650000000 BC, and she knoweth healing power."  
  
"Then we will travel there at once!" Magus' sister eagerly said.  
  
"As thee wish, Schala."  
  
"But Frog...!" Leene exclaimed.  
  
"Worry not, my liege, 'tis not a consuming trip," Frog calmed her.  
  
Schala more or less tore a Gate open.  
  
"Wait here, Cered," she said and he gravely nodded.  
  
Frog hurried into the Gate together with Magus' sister. To his relief Schala managed to keep the Gate's exit closer to the ground than the one that Crono's party had used. That one had, as many should recall, been several feet above ground. Now Frog found himself close to the Dactyl nest with the village's huts close by, in the south. The sun was shining, but there were many clouds on the sky and there was also a cold wind that hadn't been there before. Frog guessed that the climate-change which Azala the reptite had spoken about had begun to show.  
  
"Let us hurry," the knight said and pointed.  
  
Schala nodded. They walked down the path as fast as Frog's wounds allowed. The princess suddenly bent down, grabbed Frog and hurried on carrying him.  
  
"Sorry about this, but I feel that time is of the essence," she said.  
  
"I am starting to get used to it, actually."  
  
"What kind of humans live in this time?"  
  
"They art among the first people, a bit impulsive, but friendly."  
  
"We've got company."  
  
Schala put Frog down, and he saw a group of men come running from the village.  
  
"I suppose that the man in the watchtower did his work well, then," Frog said, "'tis nothing to fear, my friend, dost thee see that blond man in the lead?"  
  
He wore more animal skins than last Frog had seen him, and so did his friends. But had you seen this blond guy once, you'd remember his honest, open-minded look.  
  
"Frog!" Kino yelled, on the brink of howling, "Frog! Big frog back!"  
  
His troop of ten cavemen put their clubs down and also started mumbling to each other, happily. Frog was once more lifted above the ground, less soft this time. It surprised him that his arms didn't break, and he had to struggle against a groan.  
  
"Crono come too?" Kino yelled.  
  
"No, I am sorry, not this time," Frog said, trying not to let his pain show, "listen, my friend, I need to see Ayla right away..."  
  
"See Ayla! Come with Kino, just follow! Cute woman with blue hair too!"  
  
A short while later in the chief's hut, Frog feared for his ribs for a moment since it seemed like Ayla was about to give him a big bear-hug as welcome. But she spotted his wounds in time.  
  
"Frog back! Welcome! But hurt? Who hurt Frog?" she asked with rising rage, "no hurt Frog, Ayla go mad!"  
  
"My wounds art not the concern, my friend," Frog hurriedly said, "but another friend needs thy help, Magus is badly hurt..."  
  
"Magus strong, need help?" Ayla said in amaze, "he stronger than many others!"  
  
"Yes, but he needs thy help! Schala brought me here to get thee to him..."  
  
For the first time Ayla noticed the other guest. She almost dropped Frog.  
  
"Lavos' prisoner, the boy's sister?" she exclaimed, "poor, kind woman! Free now?"  
  
"Err, yes. I'm fine now, thank you," Schala said.  
  
The cave woman turned back to her green friend.  
  
"Magus needs Ayla's help?"  
  
"Yes!" both Frog and Schala almost yelled.  
  
"Then Ayla go, but... must return soon, so no long. Big party soon, big!"  
  
There was a great grin in her face.  
  
"Err, how nice," Frog said, "what is this big celebration about?"  
  
"Oh, Frog," Ayla happily said, almost squeezing him to death, "Kino and Ayla like best, soon forever! Big party!"  
  
"'Tis truly wonderful," the knight squeaked, "but please, I cannot breathe..."  
  
Ayla released Frog and started jumping up and down.  
  
"Go now! Hurry help blue-haired man!" she called.  
  
Schala opened another Gate by those words, and helped Frog to stand up before all three of them hurried through time. 


	10. I don't pay Ayla enough for this

When I call this chapter "Courage beyond compare", I mean it.  
  
And Magus wants my blood, but I'm used to that by now *grins*  
  
~*~Chapter 10 Courage beyond compare~*~  
  
In Guardia castle a stretcher had been brought into the ruined room, and Magus had been put upon it, still unconscious. The nurses and doctors were assembled around him together with almost every soldier in the castle. On the balcony the king and queen were standing, along with all the maids and servants. Even the cooking chief himself was there. The only two who were standing really close to the warlock, however, were Cered and Molor. Schala, Frog and Ayla had to push themselves through the crowd to reach the stretcher with the patient.  
  
"'Kino and Ayla like best forever'?" Schala whispered as the cavewoman greeted Molor with a wave of her hand and then approached the one she was supposed to heal, "what did she mean with that?"  
  
"My belief is that they art getting married," the knight answered.  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Ayla, canst thou help him?" Frog asked, turning to his blond comrade.  
  
The cavewoman put her right hand on Magus' forehead. There wasn't the slightest reaction from the warlock.  
  
"Bad, bad, bad," she said, concerned, "where Marle? Marle heal better..."  
  
"We don't know where she is," Schala said with a new grain of despair in her voice, "please try to help him!"  
  
"Ayla will try," the cavewoman said, uncertain.  
  
She took a step backwards and raised her right hand to her lips.  
  
Spekkio hadn't been able to give Ayla any magical abilities. He had said that she was born before that power was invented, but…  
  
She had some kind of magic, however it wasn't of the same sort that Frog and the others used. A sort of natural, raw, clean mystical power. It was hard to explain.  
  
The important thing was that whatever it could be, it worked.  
  
Hopefully.  
  
Ayla placed a smooth kiss in her palm and then she softly blew on her hand, sending a softly red, glistening heart floating through the air towards Magus. It stopped above him and spun around, sending a waterfall of tiny stars over his head. For a moment he was completely covered in a warm, yellow light. But as it faded, no change could be detected. He didn't move, nor did his breathing become normal. Ayla shook her head.  
  
"No good!" she said and looked at her green-skinned friend, "me heal Frog, Frog try heal Magus?"  
  
"Let us try it," the knight said, and another heart floated through the room.  
  
Once more his wounds healed, but he was still not sure that he really could help.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Water!" he exclaimed, almost furiously.  
  
As the second wave of yellow light disappeared from Magus he took a few, deep breaths. But the hope faded as his chest once more started moving extremely little and there were no other signs of recovering. Schala turned away, shaking her head and desperately rubbing her cheeks with the right hand's fingers. Cered wrapped his arms around the princess, trying to comfort her. Frog sighed and turned his eyes to the floor.  
  
It was no use... they couldn't help Magus.  
  
"Frog..." Ayla suddenly said.  
  
He looked up. Her face was like the one of a statue. Frog had never seen her looking that serious.  
  
"Yes?" the knight said, wondering.  
  
"Frog never ever tell Kino?" the cavewoman gravely asked.  
  
"What? Err, not if that is thy wish...?"  
  
Ayla looked at Magus, and then pulled a peculiar face of a mixture of determination and disgust.  
  
"Alright," she slowly said, "Ayla will try again."  
  
She sat down on one knee by Magus side and reached out to place her hands on both sides of his head.  
  
'She is not going to... is she?' Frog thought, almost in fear, 'no, she would never... she could not, seriously! No, never... she would not, 'tis not possible that she would even consider to... no, she will not do that, she just would not... she will not do it... oh my God, she is doing it!'  
  
There were several shocked gasps to be heard. Again.  
  
As Ayla's soft lips covered Magus' thin ones, he was covered in a flashing light so intense that everyone had to turn their heads away. It seemed to last forever until it finally ceased, and the cavewoman staggered backwards.  
  
"Me not feel so good..." she mumbled, pulled out her tongue and rubbed it with her fingers.  
  
"No, me understand..." Frog whispered.  
  
Ayla was obviously braver than anyone ever could have imagined…  
  
There was a low moan to be heard from Magus, and he slowly opened his eyes.  
  
"Good," Ayla said with enormous relief, "me really happy not doing that for nothing!"  
  
"Janus! Thank all powers!"  
  
Schala fell down on her knees at his side and carefully grabbed his shoulders, not daring to hug him in his state.  
  
"Thank all good powers you're back!" she almost sobbed.  
  
He tried to focus his eyes, seemed a bit dizzy.  
  
"Schala...?" he whispered in a husky, confused voice, "I feel so... so..."  
  
Magus' eyes began to work properly, but that only brought him the information that he was lying down, surrounded by Guardia soldiers. His mouth became a thin scar in his face, as well as his eyes.  
  
"No, no," Schala hurriedly said, "don't worry, both Frog and queen Leene has raised their voices about letting you go."  
  
He couldn't help staring at her.  
  
"What, the queen?" he said, disbelieving.  
  
Leene leaned over the fence and carefully smiled down at him.  
  
"You saved Frog, and therefore we wouldn't harm you," she said.  
  
Magus slowly raised his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to get a grip of the situation. Molor hissed happily and rubbed his head against the warlock's cheek.  
  
"Ayla glad to help!" the cavewoman smiled.  
  
Magus turned his head and spotted her for the first time.  
  
"Did you heal me?" he asked, frowning.  
  
Ayla tried to look innocent; she wasn't good at it.  
  
"Yeah, me and Frog healed you," she said, "teamwork good, you badly hurt!"  
  
Magus' eyes caught the knight, who just smiled a bit.  
  
"I've got a strange feeling that there is something that you don't want to tell me," the warlock suspiciously said.  
  
"Heck, no!" the whole room's population exclaimed.  
  
The warlock's right eyebrow went up, and he turned to his sister.  
  
"Schala, what the hell is going on?"  
  
She smiled calmingly and shook her head.  
  
"Nothing is going on, Janus. You just need too rest a bit."  
  
Before he could protest, she had put her hand on his forehead.  
  
"Now sleep," she softly said, "liani sha te…"  
  
Magus blinked and shook his head in a tired attempt to fight back her spell, but he couldn't since he still was weakened. His eyes closed and he fell into a deep, healthy slumber. This time, his breath was deep and calm. Schala stood up and turned to Ayla, almost shining with relief.  
  
"I can't thank you enough for helping him, but I think that it's better that he never hears the truth," the woman with blue hair said with a smile.  
  
Ayla nodded and grimaced.  
  
"Me glad to save Magus," she said, "but me want to return home now, wash mouth for many moons!"  
  
There was a silence and then, suddenly, a giggle. Once more, everyone turned to stare at queen Leene. She tried to hide her wide smile behind one of her hands.  
  
"I'm sorry," she said, fighting back more laughter, "it's just that... this is just... too bizarre!"  
  
"Thou art right, my liege," Frog smiled, "'tis truly a strange moment."  
  
Then he too began to laugh, and with him everyone else.  
  
"This will hopefully never reach the history books!" king Guardia XXI exclaimed between two explosions of laughter.  
  
Schala caught Frog's eyes and gave him a big smile, leaning against the shaking Cered.  
  
"Thou musteth tell thy brother that thou art in love with thy friend," the knight smiled.  
  
"I will," Schala nodded, "as soon as he has fully recovered."  
  
"Please allow me the honor of being there when Magus realizes that he is related to Crono."  
  
Schala gave a soft laughter.  
  
"Alright, Frog, but please don't tease him."  
  
"What, would I ever consider that?"  
  
"Yes you would."  
  
"Thee knoweth me well already."  
  
"Dost thou believe that he will ever wake up?" Cered asked one week later.  
  
Ayla wasn't there by then of course, she had left as soon as the laugh- thing was over with.  
  
"I didn't even use much power in the spell!" Schala said, most concerned.  
  
She put a hand on her brother's forehead with a sigh.  
  
"I dost really thinketh that he seem more healthy than ever," Frog said, "I dost not believe there art place for worries in our hearts."  
  
Molor nodded and gave Frog a friendly gaze for the very first time.  
  
After seven days of sleep, one could almost even detect a tiny, tiny grain of color in Magus' pale face. Somehow, and luckily, no one in the town had heard about that the Prince of Darkness was sleeping in the castle. Should that truth reach the people there would be trouble big time for sure.  
  
Magus had been moved to a bed in one of the towers, since the heal-quarters needed to be nursed by bricklayers and carpenters. It was only said that Flea and Slash had had been fought back by Schala, not a single word about the warlock had left the castle.  
  
"I am sure that he will be fine as he awakes," Frog calmed the warlock's sister.  
  
She managed to smile and nodded.  
  
"If he sleeps this long, 'tis because he is in need of it," Cered said to help calming her.  
  
"Truly," Frog said.  
  
But then he looked a bit thoughtful.  
  
"Alas, if he dost not awake soon, Flea and Slash will be fine once more and then they might give us more problems. It could be that they already hath recovered from thine attack, Schala."  
  
She nodded.  
  
"Yes, that is a concern... I would like to open a Gate leading to a couple of days earlier than this, but it can be dangerous to enter a time where you already are, if you understand what I mean. It might even screw up history, that's what happened in Zeal when Janus returned there."  
  
"Frog, mayhap thou and me together with Molor should try to find the evil ones," Cered suggested, "Schala could stay here and guard Janus."  
  
"No, we better wait until he awakes and go together," the blue-haired woman said, "those two monsters might have some dirty tricks left."  
  
She sat down on the chair that stood by the bedside, tiredly watching her brother.  
  
"I do understand that you are tired, Janus," she said, "but I would feel much better if you'd wake up."  
  
"Dost he never get hungry?" Cered mumbled, scratching his head.  
  
"I am starting to think that he always musteth overdo everything," Frog sighed, shrugging his shoulders.  
  
"No, I never killed you properly, did I?" Magus snarled and opened his eyes.  
  
Molor purred of relief when a gloved hand patted his head as greeting. Schala stood up, smiling warmly.  
  
"Do you feel any better?" she asked.  
  
"It feels like I've been sleeping forever," the warlock said, massaging his own forehead.  
  
"No, only one humble week," Frog informed him.  
  
"What?"  
  
Schala carefully pushed her brother back as he tried to sit up.  
  
"Calm down, I'm sure you needed it."  
  
"What happened?" he asked, frowning.  
  
"Thou fought Flea and Slash, then afterwards me and Ayla had to heal thee. Remembereth thee naught?" Frog said.  
  
Magus pinched himself over the bridge of his nose; it was starting to become a habit.  
  
"So when do they plan to burn me by the stake?" he muttered, "you can't be serious about that they will just let me walk away."  
  
"Of course we are serious," Schala told him, "Leene won't allow anyone to hurt you, and neither will any of us."  
  
He shook his head, confused.  
  
"I can't believe that. Why on earth would the queen of this damned time want to let me go, after all what I've done?"  
  
"Thy heart dost not remembereth the paths of the human mind and our knowledge of mercy," Frog said and smiled a bit.  
  
Magus snorted.  
  
"Spare me your speeches, pest."  
  
"Thy brother is fully recovered, Schala," The knight concluded with another smile.  
  
The warlock sat up in the bed.  
  
"For once you are right, Frog. Mercy or not, it's probably best that I leave," he said and placed his feet on the floor.  
  
He stood up, staggered and had to lean against the wall to keep from falling. Molor rose up and put his big, black head under the warlock's arm to give him some more support standing.  
  
"Ugh..."  
  
Schala put her hands on Magus' shoulders and made him sit down again.  
  
"Look, Janus, you haven't been eating for a week..."  
  
"I'll be fine," he said.  
  
"No, you won't," Schala replied, a bit harshly, "I can feel your blood run thickly even through your clothes."  
  
Magus shook his head.  
  
"I feel so... cold," he mumbled, with no expression in his voice at all.  
  
Frog touched Cered's hand, and nodded towards the door. They left, and let the siblings be alone. Asking Molor to leave somehow didn't feel healthy.  
  
"Has something happened?" the guards in the stairs asked.  
  
"He has awakened," Cered reported with a smile.  
  
"So, what's he doing now?"  
  
"He is talking with his sister. I beliveth it is better to leaveth them with only themselves for a while," Frog said.  
  
Three hours later Schala went downstairs and into the throne-room, alone. She had a small, warm smile upon her lips. The king and his wife stood up from the thrones, Frog and Cered straightened their backs.  
  
"So, what did he say?" the king asked, "where is he?"  
  
"He has left the castle," Schala said without dropping the smile.  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Yes, he said that he would never return, unless there would be extreme circumstances. But I don't know what that could be."  
  
She bowed from the waist, like Cered did to greet people.  
  
"I once more thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty," she said.  
  
"No problem," the king and queen smiled.  
  
Frog walked up the short stair and sat down on one knee in front of Leene, lowering his head.  
  
"My liege," he said, "I ask of thee to allow me the honor of hunting Flea and Slash down together with lady Schala and Sir Cered. I dare to say that lady Ayla healed me completely, and therefore I am ready for battling these two dangerous foes."  
  
Leene sighed.  
  
"I cannot command you not to go, Frog, I know that would be cruel," she said, "even though I'd be happier if you stayed, I allow you to go on this quest."  
  
"I thank thee, my liege."  
  
Frog stood up.  
  
"Let us depart, my friends," he said with a smile.  
  
"Do be careful," Leene told him as Schala opened a Gate.  
  
"I will, I swear," Frog calmed the queen.  
  
And so he left the his own time again, together with Cered and the Prince of Darkness' sister. 


	11. It's an ancestor's time!

~*~Chapter 11 Cered's time and hometown~*~  
  
They stepped out into a cloudy day, on a road.  
  
"Ah, how wonderful to see the houses of my hometown again!" Cered said with a wide smile and pointed.  
  
There were rooftops to be seen above a nearby hill.  
  
"So 'tis 5300 BC, then?" Frog concluded.  
  
"Yes. Come on, let's go," Schala said.  
  
They started walking towards the town.  
  
The houses were small, tidy and looked somehow cute. All of them had a statue of a dragon at the side of the door, in different sizes between one and three foot tall. A few women were standing by the well in the town- square and some children were running around, playing and laughing. But except them, there were no other people around.  
  
"Forgive my query," Frog said, "but why art there statues by all the houses?"  
  
"They art protecting us from evil spirits," Cered explained, "alas, they cannot keep monsters away."  
  
"Art there monsters even in this time?"  
  
Schala and Cered nodded.  
  
"So it is," the princess of Zeal said, "but they were becoming less aggressive when me and my two friends were here last time. At least in this area…"  
  
Frog understood by the grins on his companions' lips and smirked as well.  
  
"Cered, Schala!" a small girl suddenly called.  
  
She quit hunting an even younger boy and ran over to the travelers. Her simple, warmly yellow dress and fairly long red brown hair flapped and flew behind her as she rushed forward. Cered smiled and bent down to hug her.  
  
"Hello Cali," he said.  
  
"I hath missed thee, brother!" the girl yelled and hugged him dearly.  
  
Then she turned to Schala, looking at her from top to toe.  
  
"Oh, thou look so beautiful!" the child breathed, "but were be thy weapons and other clothes?"  
  
"We've got much to tell," Schala smiled, "but firstly, you should meet our friend Frog here."  
  
Cered released Cali and she stared at the knight with open mouth. Frog calmly returned the gaze, used to people looking at him like that the first time.  
  
"Why dost thee bring a monster to our fair town?" she finally said, nervously glancing at her brother.  
  
Being only about seven, she had already got a good grip of words.  
  
"Cali…" Cered began with a frown, even though he had reacted in the same way.  
  
"I am not a monster, young lady," Frog said, without any anger, "my body might be a one which remindeth of a foe, but my mind and heart art the ones' of pure human."  
  
"Oh," Cali said, "I ask of thee to forgive my impudence."  
  
"No harm has reached my mind," the knight kindly said and smiled.  
  
The girl watched him in puzzlement for a moment. He waited for it, knowing well what was coming.  
  
"But why art thee a great frog, then?" she finally asked.  
  
"It was a... an accident," the knight replied.  
  
"Oh. Come with me, brother. Father and mother hath carried great worries!"  
  
Cali grabbed Cered's hand and excitedly began to drag her brother towards one of the houses. He threw a helpless smile at his two friends, who followed the siblings with low chuckles.  
  
A few moments later Frog bowed to greet Cered's parents. They were both about forty years old, and in good health. However, the father had to walk leaning on a stick; his left leg seemed useless. The older ones took Frog's appearance calmly. They obviously trusted their son for not bringing a monster at home, at least not an evil one. The knight swiftly pondered if it could have something to do with the fact that Cered had brought Molor into the family once upon a time…  
  
"I am honored to meet a warrior from another time," the mother smiled after a short presentation, "but now I beg thee to excuse me and Schala for a moment. Come with me, flower."  
  
She more or less pulled the blue-haired woman inside another room. Schala just waved with one hand, smiling with a sigh.  
  
"Let us sit down while we wait," Cered said.  
  
The table was about one feet high and the three men and Cali had to sit on their knees by it, but Frog had somewhat gotten used to finding different customs in other times and didn't think much about it.  
  
"And now tell me," the father in the house said and pulled his left leg into a better position, "what hath been thy doings since thee left with Molor and Schala, my son?"  
  
Cered cleared his throat and began to tell the story about his, the snake and Schala's journey.  
  
"We hath been traveling for three years, actually," he reported, "but 'tis only how we experience it, I suppose. 'Tis a bit confusing to go through time. However we found nothing that would help us find Janus. No matter how hard we sought we could not find him... but one day Schala found a picture from around 630 AD, which truly gave her a shock. The picture was of a grown, pale man, carrying a scythe. And he had blue hair, just like Janus and Schala. The text to the image said 'The Dark Lord Magus, the Prince of Darkness. A terrible warlock leading the Mystics in a bloody war against the humans in the end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh century. Killed by brave heroes with the help of the sacred sword Masamune'. Of course we immediately tried to enter that dark time, but for some reason Schala could not open a Gate leading there."  
  
"But was he an adult? Schala always said that her brother was no older than me!" Cali pointed out, puzzled.  
  
"We did not know if it truly was him," Cered told her, "and of course we did not want to believeth that such a monster could be Janus. Concluding that we could not go there to see what was the truth, Schala was sure that there was somebody watching us. We thought that it maybe hath to do with the beast Lavos that she hath told us about, and of whose evil heirs we had killed five. She decided for an attempt to fool him, by somehow trying to sendeth some kind of possession which had been hers to this Magus."  
  
"When I saw the picture back then," Schala called from the other room, "I knew I had seen him earlier.  
  
But when I saw him in real life I only recognized him as the mysterious prophet."  
  
"So thee did meet Magus, then?" Cali asked, eyes wide and glistening with fascination.  
  
Cered nodded.  
  
"Yes," he said, "later we did meet him. But before that, Schala thought that the one thing that Janus would never forget was her pendant, which she had lost as she was thrown through the Gate that brought her here. Thereupon we tried to enter the time where she was born, 12000 BC, and try to retrieve her treasure from the Ocean Palace before that collapsed. However we ended up eight years later than planned. There we found out whom it was that had blocked our path to the dark lord Magus; an old fiend of Schala named Dalton. And he had already retrieved her pendant and used it for his sinister plans. He had built a fortress of pieces of the Ocean Palace, and made it fly with the help of the magic pendant. Threatening us that he could attack innocent people, he took Schala, Molor and myself captive. He also put a curse upon Schala with the help of her pendant, which would send her all wounds that he wouldst suffer. He even told us that his goal was to capture Janus, who was also traveling through time, and kill both the siblings. For a week we were helpless, until suddenly Janus and a friend of his arrived."  
  
"I beg thee, do not give me the title of his comrade," Frog said and shook his head, "he simply forced me to come with him after saving my life."  
  
Cered had to smile.  
  
"I am sorry, my friend," he said, "anyhow, Janus was indeed the Prince of Darkness, once corrupted by monsters and his hate against Lavos."  
  
The guardian of the emperor's peace turned to his knighted friend and spoke once more.  
  
"What happened in the throne room, Frog? No time hath been left for that story to reach my ears."  
  
"Aye, I firstly have to confess that I do not carry any warm feelings towards Magus, whom thee call Janus. It is his doing that I am what I am. Though I hath been fighting by his side against Lavos, we cannot become friends. And this sword I wield is the Masamune, the only truly effective weapon against him. Dalton knew that, and as he trapped Magus he tried to pursue me to end the warlock's life. But instead I attacked Schala and as the curse upon her worked backwards too, Dalton died. After that we released Cered and Molor, and went here after that I hath asked my liege for permission follow Schala and her friend here for a while."  
  
"Where is Molor, by the way?" Cered's father asked.  
  
"He is with Janus, who went to some other time for a while. We will meet both of them as soon as we art equipped, Dalton stole and destroyed our weapons," the son told him.  
  
The older man nodded, resolute.  
  
"I see. Thou better bring thy grandfather's katanas with thee, my boy."  
  
"I thank thee, father," Cered said.  
  
There was the sound of two pairs of feet hitting the floor in a walk. Schala and Cered's mother came back into the kitchen.  
  
"I'm almost ready," the blue-haired woman smiled, "I only need a new staff, then I can enter battles again. What do you think, Frog?"  
  
The knight had to take a deep breath and swallow before he could speak:  
  
"I beliveth that Magus will cut my eyes out because I hath seen thee dressed like that."  
  
Magus and Molor looked up as the sound of an opening Gate was to be heard. The sun sparkled upon the fortress' black walls while the two guards easily got up from resting in the shadow of a sand dune.  
  
Cered now carried two thin swords inside two sheaths by his belt, and had a red headband instead of the piece of cloth that Schala had given him. Frog looked much the same, but had a very strange smile in his face.  
  
"What are you smirking about?" Magus snorted.  
  
Then Schala stepped out of the Gate.  
  
"How do I look, Janus?" she said with a slanted smile.  
  
"Schala?"  
  
She wore a top covering her chest and half her stomach, and a skirt that only reached halfway down to her knees. The few clothes were all colored in her typical, soft purple. She also wore sandals and her pendant, but nothing else. In one hand she held a staff made of dark wood; it was as long as she was tall. The simple weapon had carvings of strange symbols, but otherwise it was just a long piece of hard, round wood.  
  
If she hadn't got the staff she could almost have passed as a woman from Ayla's village.  
  
"Shouldn't you... at least have some kind of armor?" Magus finally said.  
  
"'Tis the traditional battle-clothes for staff-carriers," Cered explained, "'tis as light as their weapon."  
  
"Humph. What about protecting the weak points?"  
  
Schala smiled a little and raised the free hand to point upwards in front of her face.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the Power of Light," she said, "liryla soh sha."  
  
Her clothes started to glow. The light grew and covered everything except her hands, face and feet.  
  
"This reduces damage as good as any metal-plates," she explained, "I call it Sunlight armor. And for late battles I've got the Moonlight armor. Liryla lati sha."  
  
By the second chanting the light ceased and became deeply blue.  
  
"I just don't want you to enter battles without minding about surviving," Magus said.  
  
Schala shook her head with a smile and made her magic armor disappear with a wave of her hand.  
  
"What have you planned for today, then?" she asked.  
  
"I've been preparing to destroy the fortress," her brother replied, "we better walk a couple of hundred yards away, just to be sure no accidents occur."  
  
They went over to a sand dune that Magus judged as distant enough. From the magic depths of his cloak the warlock brought forth three small bottles containing a warmly yellow liquid; mid ethers. He gave two of them to Schala and opened the third.  
  
"Keep them ready," he told her, "I will need them in a moment."  
  
And with that, he emptied the bottle left in his hand and put it back inside the depths of the red cloth. Then he turned to face the fortress and raised his hands.  
  
"Dark powers of the world, I dare to ask of you to lend me strength!" he almost roared, "na matala uloro worch netal vonodra kchar!"  
  
At first, the dark building seemed to grow. Then suddenly, without any sound at all, it dissolved into thin air. No trace of it was left, no wind, no pressure threw anything around. The fortress just disappeared.  
  
Magus staggered, but Molor rose up to give him support as the warlock sat down carefully. Schala hurriedly opened the second mid ether and held it up to her brother's lips.  
  
"Interesting result," the warlock muttered after swallowing the liquid.  
  
"What on earth were thee doing?" Frog asked.  
  
"I set up five Dark Matters inside of the fortress," Magus said, "then I simply triggered them."  
  
"Hath thee gone mad?"  
  
"Setting spells up like that is less consuming than chanting a direct one, pest, it just takes a while."  
  
Magus snorted and emptied the last bottle. Then he spoke again:  
  
"Alright, let's go to the End of Time and talk to Spekkio."  
  
Frog, Schala and Cered nodded. The only woman in the troop raised her hands.  
  
"Do I need to aim for a special time to get us there?" she asked.  
  
"No," Frog said, "any Gate will bring us there if we travel more than three at the same time."  
  
"Alright, then."  
  
She started to mumble.  
  
"Wait!" Cered suddenly said, "where is Molor?"  
  
They looked around, and finally Frog spotted a black, long thing on the top of another sand dune about thirty yards away. The snake had raised up, almost standing only on the tip of his tail and seemed somehow very angry.  
  
"What art thee doing?" the knight called.  
  
"Come here, Molor!" Magus called, frowning.  
  
The snake hurriedly crawled over the beach and over to his friends, hissing angrily. Magus watched him with raised eyebrows for a moment, just like the other three in the group. Then the warlock turned to look at the spruce forest that arose from the sand and changed the terrain from beach to something green.  
  
"Why is he so mad?" Cered wondered.  
  
"He says that he can feel the presence of a Lavos' spawn in the forest," Magus said without turning around.  
  
"In this era?" Frog said.  
  
"Yes, strange as it may seem."  
  
"Then we better be on our way," Cered said.  
  
He suddenly froze.  
  
"Wait a moment, Janus... Molor what?!"  
  
"He told me that he feels a Lavos' spawn," Magus said, patiently.  
  
"Thee... communicate?" Cered said, lightly said astonished.  
  
Frog waved with a hand.  
  
"No use wondering, my friend," the knight said, "there be no reason for amaze."  
  
"You get smarter bit by bit, Frog," Magus said with a small sneer, "it might be a slow progress, but there really is some intelligence somewhere deep inside. Astounding, but true."  
  
"We better find the spawn," Schala hurriedly said to stop the argument, "Molor, would you show us the way?"  
  
"Should we not better wait until tomorrow?" Cered suggested with a glance at the sky, "the sun is sinking, and fighting at night is never good."  
  
"That is true," Schala said, "but I think it's better to take care of the monster as soon as possible. If we don't do something, it might feel our presence and prepare for our attack. It could be that it already knows."  
  
"Let us go, then," Frog said.  
  
"Right." 


	12. This almost had me crying as I wrote

There's swearing and violence in this chapter… just so you know.  
  
Do I really have to remind you that I don't own anything except Cered, Molor and the other characters of my own creation? Everything else belong to Squaresoft. Eugh, when I consider it… just keep Molor away from me, I'm as afraid of snakes as Marle is O_O  
  
~*~Chapter 12 The price of resurrection~*~  
  
With Molor in the lead they entered the forest in the red light of the sunset. It was getting dusky as the five travelers reached a cliff. The snake moved his head back and forth for a while, and then hurried over to a big bush.  
  
"Behind that?" Schala asked.  
  
Magus pulled out his scythe and cut the bush by the ground. The leaves and branches had once hid a big hole in the cliff, but not anymore.  
  
"Caverns," Frog sighed, "I despiseth them!"  
  
"What, scared of the dark?" Magus sneered.  
  
"'Tis always too small places, where one cannot swing the sword."  
  
"Then use your magic, you idiot. Come on, let's go."  
  
On guard, ready for battle, they entered the cave. There was a tunnel leading deeper in, but it wasn't very long. And there was a growling sound coming from the deep darkness.  
  
"Now it knows we're here," Schala whispered, "I'll shed some light. Powers of the world…!"  
  
The walls themselves started to glow by Schala's low chanting, and the growling became a roar. It really was a Lavos' creation, big, spiky and with a three-part mouth. It was deeper inside were the tunnel became a cavern, rocking back and forth.  
  
"Be ready!" Frog called as Schala activated a magic armor to protect both her and Cered.  
  
The five warriors ran into the cave and surrounded the spawn.  
  
"Magus, if we could be able to maketh it open the mouth, we might be able to kill it using Spire!" Frog called.  
  
"'Tis really a mouth?" Cered asked, "I always believed 'twas an eye."  
  
"I believe it's both," Magus said, "very well Frog, we'll try that stupid attack of yours."  
  
Schala ran over to the monster and gave it a hard knock on the shell straight above the eye/mouth with her staff. Then she jumped backwards to safety.  
  
"Confuse it and it'll take a peek!" she yelled, "laohn sha nebal!"  
  
She threw a glowing plate at the closed part of the beast. The spawn drew back as it was hit and got a scratch on the hard shell protecting the weak point. With a war cry Cered leaped forward and cut at the weakly hurt armor. Then he danced away from the two spikes being shoot after him.  
  
"… the power of Water, crancha na lishoro!" Frog growled, causing a transparent tidal wave to throw the spawn against the cave's wall.  
  
It fell to the floor and furiously sent spikes flying over the whole room, without any luck.  
  
Molor rushed over to it and violently hit the mouth/eye with his tail. The spawn was getting confused, it opened...  
  
"Now!" Frog and Magus yelled in unison.  
  
The knight took a great leap, and the spawn screeched in pain as the cold metal plunged into its only weak point.  
  
"Duck, everyone! Powersoftheworldlend…"  
  
Magus' prayer and chanting went so fast that it was impossible to identify the familiar words. But it worked.  
  
Rocking back and forth in agony the spawn shoot almost all of the remaining spikes at its enemies, but as it now was blinded by the sword and the pain it couldn't aim. The sharp projectiles were easily avoided as Magus' order had been obeyed.  
  
The spawn growled, a fading sound, and became completely still. Frog pulled out the Masamune with a shuddering look at the blade. Since he recently had prayed to Water, he didn't have to repeat that.  
  
"Sela," he simply chanted, and the sword became clean.  
  
"Is anyone hurt?" Cered asked.  
  
There was a moment used for trying to detect even the slightest pain.  
  
"Seems like we got away without a single scratch..." Schala said as she stood up and dissolved her and Cered's armors.  
  
Characters in games and stories in general should really study the great list of "Things I should never ever say". There was a sound from the spawn. It still had one last spike. It detected the voice and movement. And with the last of its power, it shot.  
  
"Schala!!"  
  
The air seemed to turn into glue as Magus, Molor, Cered and Frog threw themselves towards the blue-haired woman, all knowing they were too late.  
  
Time ceased to exist for a moment as the spike hit, just a few inches above the pendant. Then Schala fell, with a fading scream of pain that seemed to never end.  
  
She hit the ground, her eyes wide open in shock.  
  
She was dead.  
  
"No!!"  
  
Magus dropped to his knees, staring at the two feet long spike that was buried in his sister's chest.  
  
Frog felt his whole body turn cold as his legs stopped working and he also dropped to the ground.  
  
Outmost despair and shock made it almost impossible to breath.  
  
Cered and Molor were the ones who made it all the way. The man from 5300 BC violently pulled the spike from the killing wound and threw it away. He grabbed Schala's shoulders and pressed her limp body against his chest, her blood staining his shirt and arms. Molor made a moaning sound and rubbed his head against the dead woman's cheek.  
  
"No, my Schala! No... please wake up!" Cered cried, "Schala!"  
  
Magus heavily got to his feet and staggered forwards, falling by the sobbing warrior's side.  
  
"Frog!" Cered screamed, "thou musteth help her!"  
  
"I... I cannot... cannot..." the knight stuttered.  
  
Seeing Crono turn to dust in front of Lavos had been the one thing that he had dreaded the most to recall, but this... it was even worse. Schala... the fair, kindhearted angel of a woman... murdered by the child of the monster that had controlled her mother...  
  
Somehow Frog made it the few feet pass the cave floor, staring in horror at the corpse. Blood had already covered Schala's top and still streamed over her pure, soft skin down on the ground from the disgusting wound.  
  
"I cannot..." he stuttered once more, completely empty inside.  
  
"But thee must!" Cered cried, tears flooding from his eyes.  
  
"No," Magus said.  
  
His voice was not sad, not angry, filled with pain or even dead. It was just a sound leaving his lips. He took Schala from Cered and slowly touched her hair, without any expression in his eyes at all.  
  
"Frog cannot awake her. He has not got that kind of magic. And there's no more chrono trigger we could use to change history... don't suggest me to use that spell with which I restored Frog's wounds, her spirit won't be there anyhow..."  
  
He was just talking, muttering without any soul left.  
  
"Dost thee have any possible magic power which could help, then?!" Cered cried.  
  
Magus slowly shook his head, acting most like a zombie.  
  
"No. She would never forgive me. It is forbidden power."  
  
The agony made Frog explode. He flew to his feet, grabbed the warlock's crag and roared:  
  
"Forbidden power, Magus?! When did that ever matter to thee!? If thee can save her, then do so!"  
  
But the blue-haired one just shook his head, and Frog's strength disappeared. He dropped to his knees again.  
  
"I cannot..." Magus whispered, "I wish I could, but I cannot. She would never forgive me."  
  
"Stop saying that!" the knight screamed, "what is this forbidden power, why cannot thee help her?"  
  
"You don't understand, Frog..."  
  
Magus looked up at the two men and the snake, suddenly with endless pain in his eyes. Frog's throat thickened as he watched the face he had hated for so long, marked with such agony.  
  
"I truly wish I could do it, but I cannot. The spell requires two human sacrifices."  
  
He turned to his sister's pale face again, staring at her with empty eyes.  
  
Frog and Cered slowly looked up. exchanged gazes and determinedly nodded.  
  
"Then we will die," Cered said.  
  
Magus looked up.  
  
"What?" he sharply said.  
  
"I do not wish to live without Schala," Cered said, resolute.  
  
"'Tis not a matter of honor," Frog said, "but a matter of my close friendship to Schala and Cered. And th... th..."  
  
But not even in this moment he could speak out what now laid upon his tongue. Frog just shook his head.  
  
Firstly, it seemed as the warlock hadn't heard the spoken words. Then he sighed deeply.  
  
"No... you are the last two I could ever sacrifice. Blast it!"  
  
Suddenly his voice was filled with rage and agony. He began to shake, his face paler than ever before.  
  
"Damn it all!" he roared at the roof, "I am supposed to die, not her, not her! Damn you, Lavos!! And you two!"  
  
He let go of Schala and grabbed a throat with each hand. Frog and Cered hadn't even time to react before their feet were above the ground and they were fighting for air.  
  
"You idiots! Fools! You would die for her?! You who must live for the sake of Crono!?" Magus roared.  
  
He released the two men and fell to his knees again, but his rage didn't cease.  
  
"If Crono isn't to be born, then Lavos will never be defeated! If somebody here is to die it should have been me, and I will! But why, why did Schala die!? Damn it!"  
  
Curses flooded from his lips until Molor did something outmost astonishing. He raised his tail and slapped Magus across the cheek, so hard that he rocked aside.  
  
The silence following was eventually broken by a deep breath.  
  
"I cannot sacrifice you," the warlock said, now controlled and calm again, "because Schala loves both of you, and you are needed in order to let Crono exist."  
  
"Why me?" Frog asked, blankly.  
  
"You might have forgot how you once looked," Magus said, with ceasing expression in his voice, "but I haven't... and if Lavos is to be destroyed, I must die so that you can become human and..."  
  
"'Tis rubbish, shut up!" Frog screamed, "I will not hear it!"  
  
Wasn't it enough that Schala had died?!  
  
"There must be another way to bring her back!" Cered said, pleading.  
  
Magus looked like he was about to shook his head again, but suddenly he froze.  
  
"Do you hear that?" he said in a husky voice, looking at the cavern's entrance.  
  
At first, neither Frog nor Cered understood what he meant. Then they too heard the soft, distant drone.  
  
"'Tis..." Frog whispered, "could it be...?"  
  
Magus put his fingertips upon his forehead, and the power of the telepathic call almost made the two other men fall into unconsciousness.  
  
'Land that thing, now!' Magus screamed with the help of his thoughts, 'yes, it's me! Land! By the cliff, there's a tunnel... right now!'  
  
The drone came closer, and turned to a fading buzz as there was a strong light filling the short tunnel. From the light came the sound of three pair of feet running over the cave floor.  
  
"Frog! Magus!" a blessed familiar voice called.  
  
The voice belonged to a young blond woman, dressed in softly green, loose pants and a top in the same color. She kept her hair in a ponytail.  
  
Behind her was a young man with chestnut-red hair that pointed in all directions held up by a headband, and another young woman with a helmet and enormous glasses. Frog managed to stand up.  
  
"Crono, Marle, Lucca!" he called, "oh, how wonderful to see thee in this dark hour..."  
  
"Enough!" Magus growled.  
  
He stood up, carrying Schala's limp body in his arms.  
  
"We will talk later," he demanded, "right now we must bring Schala back to life. With your help, I might be able to conjure her soul without sacrifices. There's still time."  
  
"What, Schala?" Lucca gasped, "and who are you?"  
  
The last she aimed at Cered. Marle had spotted something else in the meantime, and stood behind Crono.  
  
"A snake?" she said, her voice shaking.  
  
"We shall explain everything later!" Frog called, "and Molor is not dange… is tame. Magus, what must be done?"  
  
There was no time for presentations!  
  
The warlock nodded and carried Schala to the middle of the cave, where he put her down.  
  
"Firstly Frog, you and Marle must heal her wounds," he said.  
  
"Will be done immediately," the knight grimly said and went over to the siblings.  
  
Crono had to walk between Marle and Molor to bring her to Schala. The blond one was obviously not fond of snakes. The chestnut-red-haired one just smiled softly, silent as always.  
  
"Ugh, that's a bad one," Marle shuddered at the sight of the wound.  
  
"Just heal it," Magus said, "Lucca, you help Cered and Molor move that damn shell out of the way and dispose of it."  
  
"Roger!" the scientist nodded and went over to help the warrior and the snake push the dead spawn towards one of the walls.  
  
Magus turned to Crono and asked:  
  
"Do you have any elixirs left? Twenty-four? Good, bring ten here."  
  
The silent young man nodded and turned to run back to Epoch outside of the cave.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Fire!" Lucca called, and her massive knowledge of flame based magic took care even of the stone like shell. It turned to ashes.  
  
"We're done, Magus!" Marle called and straightened her back.  
  
"Good," the warlock said.  
  
Crono came back, with his hands overloaded with golden bottles. He put them down and looked up at Magus, who nodded and spoke:  
  
"Alright everyone, we must all drink an elixir."  
  
"I feel fine, actually..." Lucca said.  
  
"I'm only minding your health," Magus said and turned to Molor with a bottle in his hand.  
  
"Do not question him," Frog said and took an elixir.  
  
He opened the bottle and looked up, wary of the silence.  
  
"Is there something wrong, my friends?" he asked.  
  
"Magus worries about Lucca's health and you say not to argue with him?" Marle said, very slowly, "what have you two been up to?"  
  
"Just do what he sayeth," Frog tiredly said, "in this dark moment we must all forget our own will."  
  
And with that he emptied the bottle's crystal-clear liquid, his mind and body suddenly feeling just as pure and free. If the potion was to be called magical or drug, that was an unimportant matter.  
  
Silently, the others followed the knight's example.  
  
Magus stood up by Schala.  
  
"You must all do as I tell you now," he grimly said, "Frog, you stand over there, Marle, you go there, and face him. Cered..."  
  
He directed them all to stand in a circle around himself and his sister.  
  
"This spell will draw a lot of your power," Magus warned, "but I'm sure you'll be fine."  
  
"Have you hit him in the head or something?" Lucca hissed to Frog.  
  
"Listen," the warlock said, strangely enough not impatient, "Marle, Frog, be prepared to chant as powerful healing spells you can manage when I tell you to. Aim it at Schala. Everyone else, just concentrate on me. I will have to use your strength in order to call Schala's spirit, but you're all strong enough to survive it. Are you ready? Now!"  
  
He raised his hands, closed his eyes and started to mumble. The air itself seemed to start glow and sparkle eerily.  
  
"Frog, Marle! Now!" Magus called.  
  
"Powers of the world, we bid of thee to…"  
  
"… Lend us the power of Water! Na matala…"  
  
As the stars were shed over Schala the light began to thicken and assemble into a glowing, flickering orb above her chest.  
  
"Zoguldra na gol...!" Magus snarled, the skin in his face stretched in his effort to control the magic, "zoguldra logondo! Concentrate harder! Gol tola logondo!"  
  
The orb slowly started to lower itself into Schala, but it seemed like it had problems getting inside of her chest. It staggered, and Magus' voice became more desperate.  
  
"Zoguldra... Marle, cast healing magic on me once! Na gol... Marle, Frog, now! Logondo zoguldra tola!! Crono, cast Luminaire on me, do it!"  
  
The young man stared at the warlock for a second, but then he raised his arms above his head. His feet left the ground as his lips moved in silent chanting. An enormous, light-green cupola formed over Magus and Schala. The warlock roared in pain and trembling he pointed both his hands at his sister. The dome flickered, and then suddenly formed to one massive beam that hit the light-orb and violently pushed it into the dead woman's chest. The light disappeared immediately, and Magus fell with a deep sigh. Everyone dropped to his or her knees, gulping for air. All except Molor. He didn't have any knees, and in any case he seemed to have some energy left. He hurried over to Magus and poked at the fallen man with his head.  
  
"I'm fine... Molor..." Magus whispered with a broken voice.  
  
Frog managed to half walk, half crawl over to the two siblings. He opened one of the three last elixirs and put it by Magus' lips, helping the blue- haired man to raise his head with a hand under it. The warlock swallowed most convulsive, but then he slowly sat up on his knees. By then the others had assembled by the three breathing ones. There was no sound.  
  
The world was silent.  
  
Schala coughed.  
  
She took a deep breath.  
  
She opened her eyes.  
  
A whole lifetime seemed to pass.  
  
"Schala?" Cered finally whispered, his voice shaking slightly.  
  
"Cered...?" she whispered, "where... where is Janus...?"  
  
"I'm here," Magus said with a strange voice, "drink this."  
  
He carefully lifted her head and helped her to drink the second last bottle of elixir.  
  
"What happened...?" Schala whispered as the bottle was taken away.  
  
"Dost thee recall anything?" Cered asked.  
  
She frowned.  
  
"There was this short pain and then light... and somebody told me it wasn't time yet for me to... die?"  
  
Her head violently turned at Magus.  
  
"Janus, you didn't...!?" she more or less screeched in horror.  
  
He shook his head.  
  
"No, I didn't. Though both Cered and Frog were willing to sacrifice themselves for you."  
  
Schala suddenly sat up and swung her arms around three surprised men's necks.  
  
"Why you fools!" she cried.  
  
She released Frog and Magus, but Cered wrapped his arms around her, smiling. His eyes had a warm, inner glow that reflected in the woman's gaze.  
  
"You're all crazy!" Schala said with tears in her eyes, "especially you, Cered!"  
  
"I was sure I hath lost thee to the Reaper," he whispered, ignoring her words, "I loveth thee so much, Schala..."  
  
And he kissed her. With her eyes filled with love as well as tears, Schala buried her hands in Cered's hair and let him carry her still rather forceless body. Marle leaned against Crono with a happy sigh and he put his arm around her shoulders, smiling warmly. One could even notice that Molor was most relieved.  
  
Magus opened the last elixir with a small, peculiar smile.  
  
"A toast to my sister and her future husband," he said and put the bottle by his lips.  
  
Frog just couldn't be surprised anymore. He took the bottle as Magus gave it to him, and took a mouthful without any second thoughts. Then he passed it on to Lucca. She drank a little after a shrug of her shoulders and gave the piece of glass to Marle.  
  
"Hey Magus..." the scientist carefully said, "are you feeling well, really?"  
  
"Why wouldn't I?" he asked.  
  
"You suddenly seem so... alive."  
  
"Of course I'm alive, don't be ridiculous," he snorted.  
  
Lucca gave a relieved sigh.  
  
"Good to hear you say that, I thought the world was being turned upside down," she said.  
  
Magus rolled his eyes, but there was another shadow of a smile on his lips. Schala managed to sit up properly, but still leaned at her beloved friend with a warm smile. He kept his arms around her.  
  
"And this be Crono, who's ancestor I am?" Cered asked with a smile and nodded at the young man.  
  
Crono looked a bit surprised, but smiled broadly.  
  
"Truly," Frog smiled.  
  
Then he suddenly froze, with growing disgust in his eyes.  
  
A horrid realization had come to his mind.  
  
"Magus, thee said that I as well am the ancestor of Crono?" he said, trying to keep his voice calm and steady.  
  
Everybody turned to the knight.  
  
"Yes, you are," Magus said, frowning, "I am sure about that. I started to think, and went into my own mind to bring the memory of your face back. There's no doubt."  
  
"Then," Frog slowly said, "if I am related to Crono, I am also related to Cered and his children. And if Schala is the mother of Cered's children, then that means... oh, no..."  
  
Frog and Magus stared at each other, then turned away with disgust beyond compare. There was a silence before the second laugh-party of this story began.  
  
"You're just one big, happy family, aren't you!?" Marle called, sneering.  
  
"Molor," Magus said and pointed at the blond one, "eat that woman."  
  
The snake nodded and started to slither over the cave floor, hunting. Suddenly Marle was above the ground, in Crono's astounded arms.  
  
"I hate snakes!"  
  
"But use the situation!" Lucca laughed, "use all the charms you learnt from Ayla on him for a mega-elixir or something!"  
  
"This would be a great time for you to be my friend instead!" Marle screamed, making Crono pull a face because of his aching ears.  
  
"Enough, Molor," Magus said with a cold, twitching smile, "I'll show you mercy this once, Marle."  
  
"Thank you!" Marle sighed as the snake drew back.  
  
Then Crono fell backwards because of her weight. Magus hid his mouth behind his hand and turned away, but he couldn't stop his shoulders from shaking as he laughed. Frog couldn't withstand it either for very long. 


	13. Some things NEVER change

~*~Chapter 13 Returning to the End of Time~*~  
  
They set a camp outside of the cave, below Epoch. There was a lot to talk about.  
  
"So thy mother ran through...?" Frog said, looking at Crono, "oh, I see. And yet no signs of neither her nor thy cats? But thee hath killed four more Lavos' spawns?"  
  
"That's great," Schala said, "then there should be only five or six left for us to take care of."  
  
"It were hard battles!" Marle said, "but we showed them who's boss, right?"  
  
"Nothing can beat the power of science!" Lucca laughed, "so what have you been up to, boys, girl and snake?"  
  
That question wasn't answered until midnight. Frog was on the brink of disclosing the secret of Ayla's great courage, but stopped himself in time. He did hope that he would be able to tell Crono and the two women about Magus' first (and probably only) kiss someday, though.  
  
The next morning, they had to part.  
  
"Give the spawns some extra hits from us, eh?" Lucca called from the Epoch.  
  
"Good luck finding thy mother and the cats!" Cered yelled back.  
  
"And come visit some time!" Frog called and waved with his hand.  
  
The three humans in the Wings of Time waved back as they arose towards the heaven. Epoch blinked, seemed to become longer, and then disappeared.  
  
"'Tis a silent boy, that Crono," Cered said.  
  
"Truly, and yet he speaks," Frog said, shuddering his shoulders, "'tis impossible to grasp how he dost it."  
  
Magus waved with a hand, impatient.  
  
"Nevermind, let's go to the End of Time."  
  
He opened a Gate and went inside, followed by Molor. The others hurried after him.  
  
There was a slight sense of nostalgia to enter the dusky room again. This time, there were only three pillars of light to chose from.  
  
"Is this the End of Time?" Schala said, a little bit skeptic.  
  
"Yes," Magus said with a strange little smile, "come on, there's somebody here that you should meet, apart from Spekkio."  
  
He opened the door in the fence and went down the stair.  
  
The lonely man by the street-lamp looked up, a bit surprised.  
  
"Frog, prince Janus?" he said, "I wasn't expecting to see you again..."  
  
Magus grasped his sister's hand and made her walk into the room. The old man's jaw dropped.  
  
"Princess Schala?!"  
  
"Gaspar?" she said, astounded, "what on earth are you doing here?"  
  
The old Guru hurried over the floor and took her hands.  
  
"Oh, my dear, I thought you were dead!" he said with a thick voice.  
  
She gave him a hug, smiling warmly.  
  
"No, I was thrown through time and landed on Cered here; my fiancé."  
  
"Your fiancé?" Gaspar said, almost with tears of joy in his old eyes, "how wonderful! Nice to meet you, young man. Now, what brings you here?"  
  
"I have found a new source of magic," Schala told him, "the power of Light. Janus and Frog insisted that I should come here and see this Spekkio."  
  
"Indeed you should," Gaspar nodded and pointed at the other door in the fence, "he's in there, go on."  
  
The five travelers started walking over the floor, but Frog stopped and turned around.  
  
"Gaspar, could I hath a word with thee?"  
  
"Certainly. What's on your mind?"  
  
Frog waited until his friends had entered Spekkio's room before he spoke:  
  
"Magus told me that I am the ancestor of Crono, just as Cered is... and that the dark wizard musteth die so that I can turn into a human and become married."  
  
Gaspar gravely nodded.  
  
"But I cannot bear that somebody should die just so that I can find a wife," Frog continued and shook his head, "not even for the sake of Lavos' defeat."  
  
"You're a good man, Glenn," Gaspar said, "and it's true that you are Crono's ancestor. I'm sorry, but I can't help you."  
  
Frog sighed, concerned.  
  
Inside his room, Spekkio was concerned too.  
  
"Hey, you gotto stop getting stronger!" he said, "next I'll turn into Lavos!"  
  
"You're only one of his mutants so far," Magus said with a cold smile, "could we get to the point?"  
  
"Sure, paley."  
  
Spekkio cleared his throat, though it was hard to tell where that could be...  
  
"Hello folks," he said with a broad smile, "I am Spekkio, master of war, and if you are strong, then I look strong, yada yada, should really make you walk around this room three times, but the warlock here seems to be in a hurry, so we'll skip that. So sweetcheeks, you've found the power of Light, eh?"  
  
"Yes," Schala said, "and I'm not sure if it ever has existed before..."  
  
"Right ye are!" Spekkio said, forcing her astonishment at the master's appearance aside, "the power of Light was a secret source of magic, created as an insurance..."  
  
"By who?" Magus and Schala asked at the same time.  
  
"By the one who created magic, duh! How should I know? Anyhow, let's call you 'the Lightbringer', nifty huh?"  
  
"And what does that mean?" the princess asked, rather blankly.  
  
"That you've awoken the power of Light," Spekkio grinned, "and from now on, I'll be able to apply anyone with that power, starting with you, paley!"  
  
"But I already belong to the power of Shadow," Magus calmly pointed out.  
  
Spekkio waved with his enormous hands, almost breaking the fence.  
  
"Doesn't matter," he said, "Light won't push away the 'real' power that you have, it'll only add new abilities. Hee, hee, ready?"  
  
"You don't believe that Light and Shadow in the same body would cause imbalance?" Magus asked.  
  
"Could happen," Spekkio happily nodded, "if it doesn't work, I'll be cleaning this room from pieces of royal warlock forever!"  
  
"I'll skip then, thank you very much," the warlock dryly said, "Frog, get in here!"  
  
The door opened, and the knight entered.  
  
"Thee called?" he sarcastically asked.  
  
"Hello froggie!" Spekkio said, "I was just about to give the power of Light to ol' paley here, but he don't want to get blown into pieces."  
  
"Dideth thee call me to convince him?" the knight said with a smirk and closed the door behind him.  
  
"Sadly, I doubt he will listen. However Light and Water won't be any problem, so here you go!"  
  
Frog began to glow softly. The light lasted for a moment, then it disappeared.  
  
"How do you feel?" Spekkio asked.  
  
"I believeth that I know something new," Frog said with a big grin.  
  
"Well go on, try it!" the master of war said, "you other guys better move a bit."  
  
Frog raised his hands, and his cloak flapped without wind as he began to chant.  
  
"Powers of the world, I bid of thee to lend me the power of Light! Soh sela na shontoly waley!"  
  
A transparent, golden stream flowed over the floor and threw Spekkio backwards against the fence. He straightened up, grinning.  
  
"Good work, froggie. I think we'll call that 'Tide of Sunlight' or something."  
  
"A proper name," Frog thoughtfully nodded.  
  
Spekkio turned to his next victim.  
  
"Your turn, funky-hair."  
  
"Me?" Cered gasped.  
  
"Sure!" Spekkio laughed, "one would believe that you should have the power of Lightning, but Fire suits you better. And of course you'll have Light, too!"  
  
Cered started to glow, even as his mouth was still open in surprise.  
  
Back to normal, he looked very confused.  
  
"I dost not feel anything..."  
  
"That's because you're not used to it," Magus told him, surprisingly softly, "there's two ways to learn new spells; through battle or studying. I'm certain battling will suit you best. When you acquire a new attack, you will know it instantly."  
  
"You'll be fine, I'm sure," Schala smiled.  
  
"What else?" Spekkio laughed, "now go on, boy! Point at me, concentrate and yell 'na farey tlo'. That's simply called 'Fire', boringly enough. Don't forget to begin with the 'powers of the world' rambling."  
  
"But what if I hurt thee...?" Cered said, hesitating.  
  
"Nothing to worry about. Go on."  
  
"'Tis not very powerful," Frog said to encourage his friend.  
  
Cered slowly raised his hand, uncertain. But as he began to chant the word fell out by themselves, stronger and with more determination for every letter. Frog knew that feeling of growing knowledge well.  
  
"Powers of the world, I bid of thee to lend me the power of Fire! Na farey tlo!"  
  
Spekkio was swallowed into a great flame. When it disappeared he just shuddered a little.  
  
"That's a good brother in law you've got there, paley," the master of war smiled.  
  
"I noticed that. You've got great possibilities, Cered," Magus said.  
  
Frog softly hit his own head.  
  
"I musteth have got something in my ears..." he muttered.  
  
Cered stared at his own hands, astounded.  
  
"Incredible..." he mumbled.  
  
Schala smiled and put her arm around his shoulder. Spekkio turned once more.  
  
"Alright, now for you, snakey!" he said.  
  
"What, Molor?!" Magus, Frog, Schala and Cered said in great surprise.  
  
"Why not, he's part of the crew!" Spekkio laughed, "and guess what, he's perfect for Shadow."  
  
Molor nodded, hissing somewhat like a smile.  
  
"But how is he going to chant his spells?" Schala pointed out.  
  
"He'll do that his own way," Spekkio said, "now to..."  
  
"I warn you," Magus sharply said, "do not risk his life!"  
  
"Of course not, paley, anything for you... there you go, history's only magic snake, taa daa!"  
  
Magus sat down on one knee and looked into Molor's eyes, somewhat investigating. Then the warlock smiled coldly and straightened up.  
  
"Impressive, Molor," he said and touched the black head with his gloved hand.  
  
"Wanna try it out?" Spekkio asked, "could be good for awakening some more interesting stuff inside the beginners."  
  
"Of course," Magus said with another cold smile.  
  
"Alright! All at the same time!"  
  
"Art thee serious?" Cered asked, disbelieving.  
  
"Nothing to worry about," Frog calmed him, "I doubt that anything could kill Spekkio."  
  
"Right ye are. Now let's rumble!"  
  
Since Cered only knew one spell so far, he started with that after Schala had thrown a Sacred Stars and Frog had given Spekkio another Tide of Sunlight.  
  
"My turn!" the master of war called, laughing, "powers of the world, lend me the power of Light!"  
  
Spekkio's voice was deformed enough because of the body he used, and it was almost impossible to hear what he chanted. Frog thought that he heard "farey" somewhere, the world he had settled meant "fire". And it was probably what he had heard.  
  
White flames started to dance in his big hands.  
  
"Powers of the world lend me pure power, kell twandor!" Magus yelled before the spell hit Frog and Cered.  
  
Which meant the protection of Magic wall. The magic resistance that the warlock provided protected the two warriors well enough to only make them stagger backwards a little.  
  
"Are you alright?" Schala asked.  
  
Cered got up with a broad smile. There was something special about fighting Spekkio; the knowledge of that is was only a game. Serious battles could wait, for the moment it was all about having fun.  
  
"I am fine. And thou, Frog?" the guardian of the emperor's peace said.  
  
"Not any ordeal, my friend."  
  
"Good. I think I knoweth a new spell..."  
  
"Go on!" Spekkio called.  
  
Cered pointed.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Fire!" he called, "na farey kytour ychera…"  
  
It went on, but Frog hardly heard it. He knew that spell, and it froze him in total astonishment.  
  
"Flare?" he choked.  
  
General opinion:  
  
"What?!"  
  
Spekkio rocked backwards as enormous balls of fire were sent his way.  
  
"Fascinating," Magus said, eyebrows higher than usual, "you must be the fastest learner I've ever encountered, Cered."  
  
"Yep," Spekkio nodded even as he tried to pick himself up, "that's the most powerful Fire spell there is. I'm impressed."  
  
"I thank thee," the warrior said, "but is it really that powerful? It felt as simple as Fire."  
  
There was a silence.  
  
"Cered," Magus finally said, slowly, "you and me better have a talk someday, soon."  
  
"Yeah, you're right about that you'll have to do it later!" Spekkio exclaimed with a broad smile, "this battle ain't over yet. Chela ta luon yleqie!"  
  
Magus ducked to avoid the small, spiky objects.  
  
"… Power of Lightning!" Schala called, "na matala shetader!"  
  
Frog was about to start chanting another spell of his own while Schala's lightning flashed through the air, but then he saw Magus and Molor. And he decided to wait and watch the result of their work before he did anything else. It looked like an interesting spell they were preparing.  
  
The snake was floating in the air around Magus, who stood with closed eyes and raised hands. His lips moved in muttered, low chanting. Suddenly he opened his eyes and pointed at Spekkio.  
  
"Now!" he bellowed.  
  
From his hands and Molor's mouth black bolts erupted, throwing the master of war backwards as he was hit. Spekkio got up and shook his big head. Molor landed on the floor, hissing triumphantly.  
  
"Phew!" the master of war said, "alright folks, you win. Here."  
  
He lowered his enormous right hand, and three bottles filled with a clear, glowing liquid materialized in his palm.  
  
"Three mega-elixirs, how's that for a price?" he said.  
  
"That will be fine, thank you so much," Schala warmly said.  
  
She took the bottles and gave them to Magus.  
  
"It's probably most safe that you take care of them, Janus," she smiled.  
  
"Indeed."  
  
He made the magical potions disappear into his cloak.  
  
"We will surely meet again, Spekkio, be well," Frog said as he opened the door.  
  
"Take care, people!"  
  
They left the master of war, and went back into Gaspar's room.  
  
"Hey," the guru said.  
  
"Hast thee any new information to giveth us?" Frog asked, knowing the saying.  
  
"Yes," the old man said with a smile, "the Gates over there has changed since Crono was here; now they are made to fit your quest instead."  
  
"How can that really be?" Magus said, frowning, "who changes Gates?"  
  
Gaspar shrugged his shoulders and followed the group as the five travelers went up the stairs.  
  
"There's still only three of them," Schala pointed out.  
  
"That's right," Gaspar said, "and you came here from one of them. But more might appear after you have mended the wrongs that are in the two which are left."  
  
"Dost this mean that we will not have to travel through time to search out the vile spawns for ourselves?" Cered asked.  
  
"Correct. These Gates are made to help you complete what you have started."  
  
Frog put his hand inside the upper pillar of light.  
  
"South forest, 2400 BC," a strange, whispering voice from out of nowhere informed.  
  
Magus tested the lower one.  
  
"Caves of Torna-mountains, 1300 AD," the same voice whispered.  
  
"But what about Flea and Slash?" Frog said, frowning, "we musteth..."  
  
"Actually, those two are your less concern for the moment," Gaspar said, "I know that if you don't hurry into that one leading to 2400 BC, history might screw up gravely."  
  
"Really?" Schala said, "why?"  
  
Gaspar shrugged his shoulders and pointed at Magus with his thumb.  
  
"Because your brother won't exist. It beats me why this is, though."  
  
Magus raised his eyebrows.  
  
"Well then," he said, "let's go, Molor."  
  
"I'll tell you others when you can use the same Gate," Gaspar said.  
  
The warlock and the snake left, and the guru stood silent for a moment.  
  
"Alright," he finally said, "now you can go."  
  
"Take care, Gaspar," Schala smiled as she went into the light and was warped out of sight.  
  
The guru waved a bit, then he turned and walked down the stair, over the floor and into Spekkio's room.  
  
"Hello, Gaspar," a soft, singing voice said.  
  
Where a big, slimy mutant had been, there now was a softly glowing man. He was dressed in a white robe with golden edges, and held a staff made of silver in his hand. On his back were two enormous wings. Gaspar knew that even this angel wasn't really Spekkio's true form; he probably didn't have any. The angel was only the guru's picture of the master of war.  
  
"Do you think that they will ever find the truth?" Gaspar asked with a strange smile.  
  
Spekkio laughed warmly.  
  
"I guess they won't, I've been confusing them far to much."  
  
"Truly."  
  
"But at least they grasp the thought of me."  
  
Spekkio smiled and said:  
  
"I'm really flattered as I think of their talk that night in the forest when they had fetched Robo from the shrine. I do say, 'The Entity' surely sounds better than 'Spekkio'!"  
  
  
  
I don't know about that last part since I've never played Chrono Cross and probably never will :*( 


	14. Those ancestors are everywhere

~*~Chapter 14 Saving the ancestors of the enemy~*~  
  
Frog, Schala and Cered stepped out from the Gate to find themselves in a spruce forest. Everything was bathing in sunlight.  
  
"Janus, where..." Schala began.  
  
He came from above, from one of the treetops, landed in the moss in front of Frog, grabbed the knight's shoulder, held up his own cloak and violently threw the green one at the red cloth.  
  
"What art thee...!"  
  
"I'll explain later," Magus snarled, "be quiet!"  
  
Frog had expected loss of air and a feeling similar to being inside of a sack, but instead he found himself floating inside a dark, almost empty room. The only things there were himself, Molor and a strangely glowing window by one of the walls. The snake turned away from the last thing and hissed silently, looking almost as if he smiled, coldly and welcoming. With no other options, Frog moved up to the window and the animal.  
  
"What is this place?" the knight said, not expecting any answer.  
  
'It is inside of Magus' mind,' a dry, hissing voice inside his head calmly replied, 'he created this to keep me hidden, and now even you.'  
  
"Molor?!" Frog gasped.  
  
The snake seemed to laugh a bit.  
  
'Yes, it is me,' he said telepathically, 'here, even you can hear my voice.'  
  
"Wait, did thou say that we art inside of Magus' mind?"  
  
'So it is.'  
  
"I feel somewhat sick..."  
  
Molor laughed again, and then turned to the window.  
  
'Look here, it is what Magus see.'  
  
Frog turned his head, and saw Schala and Cered from above, through some branches. They were talking to three men, obviously soldiers. The men wore deeply blue uniforms, metallic plates covered their chests. One of them carried a sword by his belt, the other two had a spear each. They were very resolute-looking.  
  
"We are traveling warriors," Schala said, "what on earth is going on here?"  
  
"They've found the lair of the Mystics," the soldier with the sword said, "but the damn Lizard refuses to surrender. Have you seen him?"  
  
Schala and Cered shook their heads, managing not to look too confused.  
  
There was a yell to be heard from somewhere, distant and filled with triumph. The soldiers forgot all about the two travelers and ran towards the source of the call.  
  
The view through the window became unclear as Magus jumped down from the tree. It shook a bit as he landed.  
  
"What is this all about?" Schala asked.  
  
Magus scanned the area before he spoke.  
  
"I knew I recalled this era as something special," he said, "in this time, the Mystics were formed by a monster named Lizard. He wanted to free the monsters from the slavery they suffered."  
  
"What?" Frog said.  
  
The room became unclear, and he found himself standing in the moss beside Molor.  
  
"I had to hid you," Magus said, "the people here were fanatic about killing monsters and anything extraordinary."  
  
"Did thee sayeth that monsters were kept as slaves?" Frog asked, frowning.  
  
Magus' mouth was a thin line in his face.  
  
"Indeed they were," he said, coldly, "as animals too. Lizard formed an army of rebels and tried to change that. I'm pretty sure I know what Gaspar meant about my existence. Come, we must find the battlefield. I believe that we can walk freely; everyone should be too busy trying to capture the Mystic's first leader."  
  
They hurried through the forest. At Magus command they slowed and sat down behind some bushes.  
  
It wasn't really a battlefield. It was more like a trap. A small group of semi humanoid monsters, men, women and children, stood in the middle of a glade, and about thirty human soldiers stood smirking by the trees around the open place.  
  
After a glance filled with anger around the area, one of the monsters stepped forward. He had green scales instead of skin, his clothes were just a torn, grey robe and a simple piece of rope around his waist. In his right hand he held a sword. Its edge had been broken by half.  
  
"Lardon, you despicable coward!" the monster growled, "at least let the women an children go!"  
  
One of the humans stepped out in the moss. He had a shield on his left arm and a shiny sword in the right hand. He also wore a blue cloak with a silver embroidery of a crossed spear and sword on it.  
  
"You really must keep that disbelief of mercy burning, don't you?" he sneered, "for the safe of my nation, you know that I must make sure that especially those children doesn't escape. I am so terribly sorry, my dear enemy."  
  
Frog clenched his teeth to stop the growl that grew in his chest. Magus put his hand on Schala's shoulder to calm her down as her grip around the staff tightened.  
  
"Wait," the warlock whispered, "it might be that he will take care of this without our interference."  
  
"But they art surrounded!" Cered growled, "I cannot stay here and do naught!"  
  
"If history works the way it should," Magus said in a low voice, "Lizard will bring all of his friends and himself out of the trap without any help."  
  
Out in the glade, the monster in the lead smiled coldly.  
  
"Well then, I suppose that I must surrender my hope of peace," he said.  
  
"You sure took your time realizing that fighting is meaningless," Lardon smirked.  
  
Lizard snorted and put two fingers between his lips. The loud whistle echoed through the forest.  
  
At first, nothing happened. Then golden eagles swarmed from the treetops and dived at the surrounded monsters, grabbing pleading arms and flapping desperately to bring their friends to safety. It happened so fast that Lardon at first was too surprised to react.  
  
"Stop them!" he roared in outrage when he realized that he was about to loose.  
  
There were four soldiers carrying spears. They all threw their weapons, and three hit. Just as many eagles fell and dissolved into nothingness. Now there was only one flier left, and four monsters. One of them was a woman, looking much like Lizard but with bluish scales. The leader of the monsters spun around, grabbed her waist and threw her up to the last eagle, which grabbed her wrists and carried her towards the sky after the others.  
  
"No, Lizard!" she screamed, "damn it, let me go you bird!"  
  
"Take care, Snake!" Lizard called and turned away.  
  
He and the last two monsters, both of them men, grimly backed up against each other's backs.  
  
"I see that I'll at least get the three main fools as trophies!" Lardon snarled and pointed out the monsters to his men, "take care of them, but make sure they stay alive!"  
  
"It was nice being free by your side, Lizard," one of the last two monsters said.  
  
He carried a broadsword in his big hands. His arms and legs were as thick as tree trunks, he had dark purple skin and no hair. The other monster had softly red skin and short hair in a slightly darker color than the one of his body. He had no weapons. Both of them were dressed as Lizard.  
  
"Yes," the unarmed one said with a bitter smile, "but let us give the bastards a hell before we depart."  
  
He closed his eyes and started to mumble.  
  
"Freeze," Magus said, waving with a hand.  
  
At the warlock's command, every monster and soldier stopped moving.  
  
"I can only do this shortly, so this will have to be quick," Magus said, "as I expected, history has changed."  
  
"Thou sayeth that Lizard and his comrades should hath escaped?" Cered asked.  
  
Magus nodded.  
  
"What's going on here was decisive in Lizard's war against Lardon and the humans, and it's also an important event in the history of the Mystics. It's known as 'The great Escape'. Lizard should have escaped and with that adding new hope to the enslaved monsters, starting a massive battle for freedom. Then he would have found a safe place for his people and rule as the first king of Mystics together with Snake, who he just sent away. But should he die here, the Mystics will disappear before they even had been really born."  
  
"And thou will not be what thou art," Frog concluded.  
  
"Correct."  
  
Magus smiled, coldly and ironical.  
  
"The truth is," he said, "Lizard played a vital part in the awakening of my magic powers long ago."  
  
"How can that be?" Schala asked, "weren't they awoken in the end of 500 AD?"  
  
"Indeed they were."  
  
Magus pointed at the frozen, green monster and said:  
  
"Frog, look at Lizard. Then imagine that he don't have the sword, and add about four, five hundred pounds. Then what do you get?"  
  
Frog's mind found the image, with great surprise.  
  
"Ozzie!?"  
  
"Yes," Magus said with a cold, strangely bitter smile, "he attacked me as I fell out of the Gate back then, and that awoke my magic in anger and self- defense. And those other two monsters, Frog?"  
  
A fighter, covered with muscles and a man with light red skin, obviously a magic user?  
  
A thin swordsman and a female-looking freak with pink skin and a pigtail?!  
  
"Those be the ancestors of Slash and Flea?" Frog said, greatly surprised.  
  
"Yes, Warrior and Magician. And whether we like it or not, they will be needed later."  
  
"We musteth help them whoever they art related to!" Cered growled.  
  
Magus nodded.  
  
"It seems that we have no choice. But Lizard should better not carry any warmer feelings towards humans, and that is a problem."  
  
Suddenly, everybody looked at Frog.  
  
"Truly," he said and crossed his arms with a grim nod, "but I cannot help them alone."  
  
"I could use a spell similar to the one I used to turn the pest here into a frog," Magus said thoughtfully, "one that would only work for a couple of hours or until I command it to dissolve."  
  
"Good," Schala said, "I'll take care of the warmongers while you work on it."  
  
Magus turned to Cered while his sister muttered the required spell in a low voice. The warlock pointed at the guardian of the emperor's peace and started to mumble. A small lightning hit the young man, and he began to glow in eerie colors.  
  
Frog had to turn away, the memory was still painful.  
  
Cered looked at his now yellow-green hands.  
  
"Did it go well?" he asked.  
  
"Well, err..." Frog said, scratching his head.  
  
"You look fine, Cered," Schala said with a smile.  
  
Actually, he looked much like Slash, only with another color of his skin.  
  
"My turn," the princess of Zeal said.  
  
"Yes."  
  
Magus turned around and raised his hand.  
  
He froze.  
  
His arm fell, and he looked away.  
  
"I can't do it," he snarled.  
  
Frog tried to hid his mouth with his hand, but Schala just smiled a bit.  
  
"Alright, let's see what I can do, then. Powers of the world, lend me the power of Light… liryla lati sha."  
  
The dark, magical Moonlight armor hid everything except her eyes this time, and didn't take the shape of her hair. Instead it pressed her blue crown at the rest of her body. Someone who hadn't seen her magic before would have a hard time trying to figure out what she really was.  
  
"Art we ready then?" Cered asked and drew his katanas.  
  
Magus put his hand over his mouth and then he said, revealing that he had made his eyeteeth grow into fangs:  
  
"Yes, let's go."  
  
With his pale face, odd clothing and the fangs, anyone would believe he was a vampire. As if that hadn't been what everyone had suspected for a long time...  
  
Schala gave a short laugh and waved with her hand. Immediately, the soldiers and monsters started moving again.  
  
"Shetader!" Magician yelled.  
  
One of the approaching solders were thrown to the ground by a lightning bolt. He got up, staggering and cursing.  
  
"Amateur!" Magus sighed.  
  
"Shalt we?" Frog said with a big grin.  
  
The three surrounded monsters became just as surprised as the soldiers when there suddenly were four strangers and a snake standing between Lizard's small troop and the rest of the world, obviously ready to defend them.  
  
"Who are you fools?!" Lardon yelled.  
  
"Plainly unexpected heroes," Frog said with a broad smile.  
  
"Don't worry," Schala said over her shoulder, "we're here to help you."  
  
Magus turned to Lizard.  
  
"Forget about that broken sword," the warlock said and reached for his cloak, "this is the weapon of a Mystic king."  
  
From the depths of his magical cloak, Magus brought forth... his scythe. Lizard dropped the sword and took the new weapon that he was offered.  
  
"It's like made for my grip..." the monster said, almost in another world.  
  
"You don't say..." Magus said with a strange smile.  
  
He turned again and looked at Magician.  
  
"You have great possibilities," the warlock said, "allow me and my companions here to push you in the right direction. Shall we, Molor? Dark Powers of the world, I dare to ask thee to lend me strength!"  
  
"… Power of Lightning!"  
  
"… of Fire!"  
  
"… of Water!"  
  
The whole area flashed in darkness and light, got hot and soaking wet.  
  
"I do advice you to draw back, Lardon!" Schala called.  
  
The captain shook his cloak to get rid of the water and growled:  
  
"Neither me nor my men fear any monsters! Attack!"  
  
"I sense a lack of wisdom," Frog said, "thou shalt pay for thy crimes with the shame of defeat, Lardon!"  
  
"A monster who dares to speak like a nobleman?" Lardon growled, "I will have those manners whipped out of you soon enough, you little bastard!"  
  
"So you say?!" Magus snorted with a strange grain of anger in his voice, "I wouldn't even think about it…"  
  
"I beliveth not that they art going to reconsider," Cered said, "though it hurts my heart, it seems that we hath no other choice but to fight them."  
  
"We must take caution not to be too violent," Schala pointed out.  
  
"Of course, my love."  
  
Schala, Cered and Frog ran to give the soldiers a lesson of common sense manners. With a merry war cry, Warrior followed their example. Magus and Molor stayed, however. It seemed as neither Lizard nor Magician even remembered that there was an important battle going on. The leader of the monsters seemed hypnotized by the scythe, and the magic user seemed to be just as fascinated about the warlock.  
  
"Who are you and your friends, who know such magic?" Magician asked.  
  
The pale man's lips twitched a little, it was hard to tell if it was bitterly or if he was about to laugh.  
  
"I am known as Magus," he said, "and I dare to say that I am a prophet as well as a powerful spell caster."  
  
"'Tis thy profession indeed!" Frog called with a laugh.  
  
Magus ignored him and kept talking to Magician:  
  
"Allow me to show you some of my spells to help you become stronger. One day, one of your family-line will have a most important student."  
  
"Then show me," Magician said, and his eyes were almost glowing.  
  
Magus turned around and pointed.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Water! Ta keich sanea wyh!"  
  
The whole glade crumbled beneath several big rocks of ice, but Magus was careful not to harm anyone badly. His respect for Schala was really showing in that moment.  
  
"Now you try it," the warlock said.  
  
"Ta keich sanea wyh!"  
  
Lardon got away without any bad wounds probably only because the stone he was standing by stopped the enormous blocks of ice from giving him broken ribs and arms as he was knocked down. He got up, snarling words which were not meant too be written down.  
  
"I need to practice to aim," Magician concluded.  
  
"There could be needs for that, yes," Magus said with a cold smile, "and now, watch and repeat this: lend me the power of Fire, na farey tlo shar wetal!"  
  
"Na farey tlo shar wetal!" the monster repeated after the prayer.  
  
Several soldiers dropped their weapons and fell to the ground, twisting to stop the flames consuming the cloth beneath their armors.  
  
"Crancha na lishoro!" Frog called.  
  
He didn't like the ways of the soldiers here, but he couldn't stand there and watch them get roasted.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Water! Crancha na lishoro!" Magician echoed.  
  
He was a fast learner, truly. Though the fact that he was a bit clumsy showed that he wasn't very used to the new spells. Frog picked up the Masamune and shook his cloak to get rid of the water. Then he could continue the battle against the outraged humans.  
  
A soldier with a bow was about to make an attempt to end the magic lesson, but Molor got in between. The snake rose up in front of the warmonger and hissed; that was perfectly enough to make the man turn around a flee screaming.  
  
"… Of lightning! Na matala shetader " Magus called, and Magician followed.  
  
"Hey, watch it!" Warrior exclaimed and put his hand over the smoking hole on his right sleeve.  
  
"Na matala sela!" Frog commanded, and the monster with the sword was cured.  
  
The knight smiled a bit at the astounded Warrior, laughing silently at the bizarre fact that he had helped the one who was the seed of Slash.  
  
It seemed like Magician hadn't noticed Frog's spell; he didn't try to use it. Instead he looked at Magus and asked:  
  
"Is there even more?"  
  
The warlock's mouth suddenly turned to a thin line.  
  
"Yes," he slowly said, "there is the dark power of Shadow."  
  
Molor, Cered, Frog and Schala startled and spun around, not happy knowing what approached.  
  
Magus clenched his teeth and raised his right hand.  
  
"Dark powers of the world, I…"  
  
He gritted his teeth before ending the spell.  
  
"… Dare to ask of thee to lend me strength! Worch crahela krun shar retetack!"  
  
The Dark mist landed on one of the many big rocks that laid around in the forest. The stone turned to dust, and the battle froze.  
  
"Tell me, Lardon," Magus snarled, still with his teeth tightly clamped, "do you wish to challenge this power today?"  
  
The leader of the soldiers opened and closed his fists in hesitating rage before he made his decision.  
  
"Retreat!" he called, growling, "but I swear, Lizard, I will get you someday!"  
  
"I await you, coward!" the green monster called back, suddenly awake.  
  
"'Twas actually a bit amusing," Cered smiled and put his katanas back by his belt.  
  
"I am impressed with your weapon skills," Warrior said as he still grinned at the fleeing, distant humans.  
  
"One musteth combine one's soul with the blade, and thy skill will be among the superior," Frog said, without considering who he was talking to.  
  
The deep purple colored monster smiled and nodded.  
  
"Yes, indeed," he said, "my children will be the finest of swordsmen."  
  
"I am..." Frog fought back a wish to cough, "certain they will."  
  
Magician bowed in front of Magus.  
  
"I thank you for showing me all that, wizard," the monster said.  
  
"Nothing to talk about," Magus said with a small smile.  
  
Magician threw a glance at the heap of dust that once had been a rock and cleared his throat.  
  
"That... dark cloud," he said, with a trace of unease in his voice, "have you ever used it on a living being?"  
  
There was a silent moment.  
  
"I have seen it being used that way," Magus finally said, slowly and emotionless.  
  
Magician shook his head.  
  
"I cannot believe that somebody could do something that cruel."  
  
Magus, Molor, Schala, Frog and Cered exchanged glances.  
  
"You're a good man," the warlock finally said.  
  
"I want to thank you for your help," Lizard said with a smile, "I doubt we would have made it without you."  
  
"It was only natural for us to want to help you," Schala warmly said, "but now we must depart."  
  
As the woman silently (minding Magician's abilities to learn) mumbled to open a Gate, Magus gave Lizard a small smile and spoke:  
  
"You should look for an island for your next lair; it's harder for Lardon to sneak around you on the sea than if he has a lot of bushes to hide behind."  
  
"That is of course true..." Lizard said, thoughtfully.  
  
"Good, now go and find Snake. Good-bye."  
  
"Wait, who are..."  
  
But Lizard's call was lost in time. As the five travelers stepped out in the End of Time, Schala made her armor dissolve, and Cered turned back into a human. Magus probably mended his teeth, but it was hard to tell.  
  
"Hey, did it go well?" Gaspar called.  
  
"No problem whatsoever," Schala smiled.  
  
She looked at her brother.  
  
"But you gave Lizard your scythe, Janus..."  
  
He smiled a bit and shook his head, making a movement at his cloak with his right hand.  
  
"Don't worry, Schala, I've got another one."  
  
"Good, I don't want you to be unarmed, just in case. But why did you do it?"  
  
Magus shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"Lizard would have thought of it himself after that battle, since his sword was broken," the warlock said, "I just decided to help out a little."  
  
Schala nodded with a smile and turned at the last pillar of light.  
  
"I'm not tired, shall we continue?"  
  
"I need to rest," Magus said and resolutely shook his head, "I used a lot of magic back there."  
  
Gaspar went up the stair and held up a bottle containing a liquid, which was so warmly yellow that it almost seemed to glow.  
  
"'Tis a full ether?" Frog said.  
  
"Indeed," Gaspar smiled, "I don't want to push you youngsters, but there might be a need of hurrying. Something is going on by that last Gate which is beginning to make it unsteady. Bottom's up, prince."  
  
Magus took the bottle with a roll of his eyes and emptied it, uncharacteristically not arguing.  
  
"Thank you, Gaspar," Schala said.  
  
"Nothing to talk about. Now, go on."  
  
The old guru watched them all get warped away and rubbed his cheek.  
  
"They'll be fine!" Spekkio called from his room, "but they better hurry up, ya know!"  
  
"How can this be?" Gaspar said as he grimly watched a new pillar of light rise from the empty floor, "how can Crono and the girls end up in such a trap?"  
  
"You know that as well as I do," Spekkio sighed, "but it'll be paley and his friends who have to get back here in time to get the sweetcheeks and the boy out of that mess. I guess they were plain not paying attention..."  
  
Spekkio sighed, and so did Gaspar.  
  
"Prince Janus," the guru whispered, "oh, poor, poor boy..." 


	15. A human child among monsters

~*~Chapter 15 The true story of Janus~*~  
  
"It hast tentacles?" Frog shuddered.  
  
"It's a female!" Schala called, "they are fiercer, watch out!"  
  
The spawn almost hit Cered with one of the five, worm-like arms coming from beneath it. However, Molor's fangs buried deep into the tentacle, and it started twisting wildly in pain. So did the others. The snake landed on the floor, and Magus took a leap over to him to make sure he was alright and defend him until he had regain all senses.  
  
"A female?" Frog said, with great disbelief, "could anything that foul actually be a woman?"  
  
"Even better," Magus said with a cold smile, "it's a baby-sitter."  
  
He pointed at the back wall of the big cave ("I hate caves... déja vu!"). In the ceiling, hanging in slimy, green threads as thick as a grown man's arm, six big cocoons were being stored. Three of them had big cracks, and one could see a spiky scale inside of them. They were about to hatch.  
  
"That be the eggs of Lavos?" Cered called.  
  
"I don't carry any doubts, now let's give all we've got to finish off Lavos and all that he created once and for all!" Schala called.  
  
She drew a glowing circle in the air. Molor started hissing violently. Magus dropped his scythe and raised his hands. Cered pointed. Frog's cloak started flapping without any wind.  
  
"… Of Light!"  
  
Luminous was the first that hit the beast.  
  
"Hisss!"  
  
Molor opened his wide mouth and spat out a massive flame of dark fire, like a dragon's breath.  
  
"… I dare to ask of thee to lend me strength!"  
  
Two triangles spun through the air…  
  
"… Power of Fire!"  
  
… Followed by flaming orbs…  
  
"… Light!"  
  
… And a tsunami of glowing water.  
  
Neither the spawn nor the eggs that it guarded even had time to understand what happened. The strong magic attacks made the cave twice as big, and also a lot more cleaner.  
  
There was a silence before the five heroes dropped to their knees.  
  
"'Tis over?" Frog finally said.  
  
"I don't see any monsters, do you?" Magus snapped.  
  
"I dost see a vile warlock and his comrade snake, but no monsters," the knight answered with an almost friendly smile.  
  
Cered got up and embraced Schala.  
  
"'Tis so?" the guardian of the emperor's peace said, "hath we truly defeated the foul children of Lavos?"  
  
"It seems so, love," Schala smiled.  
  
"At least here," Magus said and stood up, "I believe that we're done, but let's return to the End of Time to become certain."  
  
After a battled that had lasted for about two minutes, they returned to the dusky world were Gaspar and Spekkio lived.  
  
"That must be a world record!" the master of war merrily yelled.  
  
"Truly... huh?"  
  
Frog turned his head, his brain making a fast, simple calculation.  
  
"Another Gate?"  
  
"Seem so," Gaspar said down in his room.  
  
"Well, this time we do need to rest," Schala concluded, "we used almost everything we had in one blow."  
  
"Is that so?" Spekkio called, "didn't I give you three mega-elixirs?"  
  
"That is for outmost desperate circumstances," Frog called back, "human beings musteth rest now and then."  
  
"That's just plain... living."  
  
"Sad, but true," Magus said with a small, cold smile, "we just have to bear it. So we..."  
  
"I'll give you some strength so that you can continue," Gaspar said and went up the stair, "it'll keep you up better than those weird potions."  
  
"This quest is truly rushing, 'tis not?" Cered said, raising his eyebrows.  
  
"One could say so, yes," Gaspar smiled a little, strangely bitter.  
  
He closed his eyes and started to mumble. A rain of stars showered over the five travelers, making them glow for a moment.  
  
"Why dost this all haste?" Frog asked, stretching his whole short body to get in touch with the new energy, "thee will bring us all to sleep for several days."  
  
"'Tis not my fault," Gaspar said, not remarking that he'd spoken in the manners of Frog and Cered, "but time is a twisted thing, and you must move on before the Gate starts to crumble."  
  
"This one too?" Schala pointed out.  
  
"Crono's party had luck with stable Gates," the guru kindly explained, "but I'm afraid you people have less time to make your moves."  
  
"Aye, what will one not do to complete one's quest..." Frog said and reached into the new pillar.  
  
Both him and Magus startled as the whispering voice announced:  
  
"East island, 601 AD."  
  
"What, Ozzie's lair?" the knight and the warlock said simultaneously.  
  
Gaspar sighed.  
  
"This will be hard for you," he sadly said, "prince Janus, you must be very careful this time."  
  
"Flea and Slash awaits us, then?" the warlock said, pursing his mouth.  
  
"Indeed. And they have a couple of really dirty tricks up their shared sleeve, I'm afraid..."  
  
"Everything that they know, I know as well. And more too," Magus said, shaking his head.  
  
Frog thought that it almost looked like the warlock clenched his teeth a bit, but wasn't sure. Molor looked up at Magus, but didn't make a single sound. However, the snake seemed concerned.  
  
Gaspar looked at the floor. He just waved at Frog, Schala and Cered when they could follow the warlock and the snake, and it seemed like there was no room for questions. And yet Frog felt that he should have asked the guru about more information about Flea and Slash before they parted. But it was too late; the knight stepped out in the sunbathing, for him waist-high grass around the crumbled ruins.  
  
"It seems like the circle will have to close, Frog," Magus said with a cold smile.  
  
The knight looked at the broken walls, beneath the ground he and Magus had met again only a short while ago. It seemed like ages had passed.  
  
"What is this place?" Schala asked.  
  
"It was the lair of Ozzie, old leader of the Mystics," Frog said and sighed, "a true coward, and furthermore the product of Lizard's family- line. A true pity that they were related..."  
  
"Come on," Magus said, "we better get going."  
  
He started walking towards the ruins with Molor by his side, continuing to speak over his shoulder:  
  
"It would surprise me if they aren't lurking in the underground."  
  
"But remember what Gaspar said," Schala pointed out, holding her staff tightly.  
  
Magus nodded and brought forth his scythe.  
  
They went into the building, if you could name it a building when the major pieces were gone. There was a hole in the floor close to the entrance; Magus remembered how he had sneaked around not too long ago, trying to find the place where Frog was about to die due to Leene's diary. He had more or less stumbled over the opening; it had been well hidden below dirt and growing grass. Flea had actually done a good job there...  
  
Something laid on the first step of the stairs. Slowly, awaiting a trap, Magus bent down and picked it up. Nothing happened. He examined the piece of cloth, his eyebrows raising.  
  
"What is it that thee hath found?" Frog asked in a low voice.  
  
The warlock turned around, and his eyes were very thin.  
  
"It's a headband," he said, without any expression tossing it at the knight.  
  
Frog caught the piece of cloth and stared at it.  
  
"'Tis the belonging of Crono!" he growled, looking down the stair with darkening eyes.  
  
"Sayeth thee that our friends hath been captured by our foes?" Cered said, disbelieving.  
  
"How would they have accomplished that?" Schala wondered, frowning.  
  
"Schala! Schala, where am I...!?"  
  
They all startled and spun around, staring at the small, shivering boy that stood in the middle of the open room. He looked desperate, confused and scared, wildly looking around. He was dressed in a softly purple robe, and his blue hair moved in no wind.  
  
"Janus?" Schala whispered, pressing her hand to her lips.  
  
For a moment Magus didn't even breath. Then he spoke, a hissed growl flaring with hatred.  
  
"No… no, don't put her through that!"  
  
The small boy (undoubtedly an illusion of the child that once had entered the middle ages through a Gate) spun around, gasping in surprise and fear.  
  
"What do you want?" he croaked, "leave me alone!"  
  
His hands suddenly exploded with fire, he turned his burning palms at something that only he saw, and the flames left his hands to hit these invisible foes. Then he gave a half strangled cry and fell to the ground, so exhausted by this sudden magic using that he collapsed. The image dissolved into thin air.  
  
"Janus," Schala whispered, "was that you entering this time?"  
  
He looked away for a moment, then suddenly turned to put his hands on her shoulders.  
  
"Look, Schala," he said in a harsh voice, "what they are trying to do is of my concern, and you couldn't help me in any way. There was nothing you could do, and you were not responsible, understand?"  
  
"What is this all about?" Frog asked, uneasy.  
  
"It's about that you leave," Magus growled, "I will fight alone this time."  
  
"What?!" Schala, Frog and Cered said, and Molor looked at the warlock with disbelief.  
  
"I see that Flea was right," Slash's voice said.  
  
Flea-and-Slash stood smirking upon one of the walls. Cered and Frog drew their weapons, but Magus raised a hand.  
  
"Don't bother," he said, "they aren't really there; it's an illusion."  
  
"Finally you've learnt to see that, good boy," Flea said mockingly, as if talking to a child.  
  
He smirked and continued:  
  
"Well then, will you dare to enter your past, cutie? Or will your dear sister break down before that?"  
  
The shared body dissolved; Magus had truly been right. He looked into Schala's eyes.  
  
"I'll go alone," he repeated, "I don't want any of you to follow me this time."  
  
"Out of the question!" those who could speak exclaimed.  
  
Molor hissed in an upset way to show what he thought of the warlock's idea.  
  
"You don't understand!" Magus said, "they'll..."  
  
He fell silent. Schala violently shook her head.  
  
"I don't know what they plan, but I'm not leaving you, Janus, do you hear me?" she said, "I spent so many years searching for you, and I couldn't help you from doing the things you did. I will come with you whatever you say."  
  
Magus looked at the other three, and all of them shook their heads. With a curse upon his lips, he spun to the stair and hurried down, the cloak flowing like a wave of blood. His sister and companions followed before he was able to consider a seal of some kind.  
  
They entered the wide, strangely lit tunnel. Frog thought a bit about how major parts of this journey had been spent underground. Then there was a sound that startled him.  
  
"Flea, Slash, come here!"  
  
It was Ozzie's voice, and an illusion of him entered the tunnel from out of the right wall. He carried something under his arm, a heap of purple cloth. Two new illusions appeared, of the magician and the swordsman.  
  
"What are you yelling about?" Flea asked, bored.  
  
Ozzie threw his burden on the floor; it was the small Janus. He didn't react as he hit the floor, still unconscious.  
  
"I have found something interesting," the green, fat monster smirked, "a fine human slave, indeed..."  
  
The illusions dissolved.  
  
"What dideth he call thee?!" Frog almost croaked.  
  
Magus violently turned his head away. Flea's voice laughed wickedly, echoing through the tunnel.  
  
"A slave, froggie," the magician's voice called, "a slave, a servant, a minion."  
  
Everyone stared at Magus, but he refused to look at the others.  
  
"Did you really think that the Mystics would salute a human child and make him our king, just like that?" Slash asked, scornfully, "no, such a title must be earned."  
  
Magus started walking again, on the brink of running. He didn't turn around, didn't wait for the others. It was as if he hoped that he could shake them off and spare them his secrets. But at the same time, he knew that he could not protect Schala against what could make her break. 


	16. It's not pretty

~*~Chapter 16 Creating a Magus~*~  
  
Frog was confused, really confused. It was very hard for him to keep up with Magus' pace as the knight's head was spinning with questions and disbelief.  
  
Before he knew that Magus was a prince from another time, Frog had never thought about where this human leading the monsters really came from or who he was. Then when the secret was revealed, the knight had thought that the boy's powers had brought the Mystics to their knees. But wasn't it so? That Ozzie ever had planned to keep Magus as a slave was completely impossible, it could simply not be true! Or... could it?  
  
New illusions appeared before the warlock, and he stopped with a hiss of rage. He tried to make Schala look away, but she just stared and stared. So did Frog, Cered and Molor.  
  
This time, the characters displayed with magic were Ozzie, Janus, and a fat goblin with a red, glowing whip. The blue-haired boy was still dressed in his purple clothing, probably not a day older than he had been in the earlier illusions. He was standing on his knees, shivering and pressing his hands against his pointy ears.  
  
"My name is Janus!" he screamed, "it's Janus, Janus, Janus...!"  
  
His words turned to scream of pain as the goblin hit him in the back with the whip. Schala cried out loudly in shock, Frog felt his throat thicken. He wasn't sure if it was of sudden overwhelming compassion or fear of realization.  
  
"Your name is Magus," Ozzie said, smirking, "are you going to behave?"  
  
"Leave me alone!" the boy screeched.  
  
The goblin raised the whip again, but the scenery dissolved before he hit.  
  
"Janus," Schala harshly whispered with her voice sharp with rage, "I swear that if there is even the tiniest drop of life left in those monsters, I will squeeze it out of them!"  
  
"No," Magus muttered, not turning around, "don't give into it. Not you too."  
  
He hurried on and the others followed. Frog chewed on his lower lip, he tried to grasp this new way of judging the warlock. That Ozzie could be so cruel that he would beat such a small boy... this truth was almost too much to bear.  
  
There was another illusion. This time Janus was a little older, maybe nine years old, wearing a grey shirt and a matching pair of loose pants. He was sitting by a table, studying a book. His green eyes glistened with exhaust, and he slowly sunk down to lean on the book, half asleep.  
  
A whip hit him from behind, he startled and straightened up while clenching his grip of the pages. The grey shirt was torn by the hit, and pieces of cloth fell to the ground as well as drops of blood.  
  
"Don't be so lazy, Magus," Flea said as the illusion of him got into sight, "you must study harder if you want to master the powers that you have been gifted."  
  
"My name is Janus!" the boy growled.  
  
The illusion of Flea put the red whip under his arm and grabbed Janus' hair. The boy clamped his teeth, trying not to moan of the pain.  
  
"What did you say, boy?" Flea asked, soft as silk.  
  
"My... name is Janus!"  
  
"Silly boy."  
  
Janus' forehead hit the yellowed pages of the book.  
  
"Now keep reading," Flea demanded, "I'm watching you, my pupil."  
  
Frog suddenly recalled something that Magus had said to Magician. That one of the red-skinned monster's family-line would have a most important student... and Magus had known that he'd shed the seeds to this torment?!  
  
Magus just kept walking as the illusion dissolved. But he stopped as soon as a new scene was displayed.  
  
A Janus about thirteen years old was now gulping for air, leaning against the wall. Flea stood beside him, waving with a fine hand.  
  
"Once more!" the evil teacher ordered, "you can do it, go on."  
  
The boy shook his head, about to fall of his exhaust.  
  
"I can't..." he stuttered, "I... I'm too tired..."  
  
Flea sighed, shaking the whip he held in one hand. Janus clenched his teeth.  
  
"How will you ever earn the name Magus if you can't even chant five second- level spells in a row?" the magician asked, "we gave you that name for a reason, you know."  
  
Frog felt a growl of rage rise inside his chest, staring at the staggering boy. Janus raised his hands, shivering, and tried to mumble a spell. But as the first sounds got past his lips, he gave a loud sob and dropped to his knees. The whip hit him, making him fall over and he received another hit over the chest.  
  
"Get up Magus, you're no child anymore," Flea snorted, "and when you're done here you must hurry to Slash, he's already waiting for you."  
  
Janus pressed his hands over his ears, squeezing his eyes painfully shut.  
  
"Leave me alone, leave me alone!" he screamed, "my name is Janus, it's Janus...! Schala! Schala, where are you?!"  
  
Several years of beating hadn't made him loose the grip of who he really was. He was obviously stronger than expected; there was a tiny, bitter triumph in that. But it was far to small to touch anyone's heart.  
  
"Oh, Janus...!" Schala growled, almost sobbing.  
  
Her eyes were glowing with anger and hate, the grip of her staff was so tightly clenched that her skin was turning as white as Magus'.  
  
The warlock stood still for a moment, his clenched fists shaking.  
  
"You couldn't help me," he muttered, "it wasn't your fault."  
  
"I won't let them get away with this!" she screeched, "I will..."  
  
"No, Schala, don't give in to the hate."  
  
And with that Magus moved on, past the dissolving illusions. Cered wasn't trying to calm Schala, his own rage was too overwhelming.  
  
'Why art they showing us this?' Frog thought, 'what kind of profit dost Flea and Slash hope to gain?'  
  
The truth was actually obvious.  
  
'Imbalance, of course,' the knight thought, 'at least Schala will be so deep inside her own pain that she will not be able to fight properly, and Cered will not leave her side. Can I fight? I dost not know, this rage cannot be controlled. Molor? I dost not know that either... and Magus himself? Who knows...'  
  
He looked up at Magus, the cold murderer who had destroyed the life of Glenn a few years ago, killed Cyrus and so many others too. But now... he was still a murderer, and nothing could ever erase his sins completely, but... if he hadn't been put through this torture as a boy, had he become the same man? Frog found that the painful truth actually was yes. Magus' hate against Lavos could probably have created a man lead by rage and wishes of revenge, just as Janus had been torn from his childhood into a life of hate by the Mystics. He had just got a lot of unwanted help to feed the anger. No wonder he had become such a demon. Yet, yet... maybe things could have been different? What if Ozzie hadn't found him first, what if someone like Cyrus had? If Magus had grown up as a human, and learnt to control his hate, turn it into a power of good... dreaming of revenge, not for the sake of revenge itself, but for the wish to save Schala and everyone else from the power of Lavos? If he hadn't been turned to Shadow by force?  
  
'It's useless to wonder, Frog,' Magus' cold voice said inside of the knight's mind, 'it's true that a lot of things could have been different but they weren't, and it cannot be changed.'  
  
Frog wasn't startled or even surprised to hear the warlock's voice in his head. Somehow it didn't seem to matter right then.  
  
'I must judge thee in another way,' the knight thought, 'I am sorry.'  
  
'Sorry?' Magus' telepathic voice said, almost lazily, 'for what?'  
  
'For ever hating thee, Janus.'  
  
At first, there was no reply. Magus didn't turn his head either. Then he finally sent this thought:  
  
'I just wish that Schala shouldn't have seen this.'  
  
'So dost I.'  
  
"You're a worthless worm, Magus! And a thickheaded one, too!" Slash's voice snarled.  
  
"Ouff!"  
  
Another illusion of Janus entered the tunnel, stumbling backwards out of the wall. He wasn't older than last time, wore the same grey cloths as before. The adjustments were that the outfit had several cuts, and he held a thin sword in his hand. He got to his feet and managed to parry Slash's attack. The two swords created a screeching sound as they were drawn against one another.  
  
"Five blasted years I've wasted trying to teach you something," the swordsman growled, "and nothing stays in your head."  
  
"Janus...!" the boy snarled, "my name is not Magus, it's Janus!"  
  
He ducked and attacked in rage, forcing Slash to draw back a little.  
  
"Good boy," the teacher said with a cold smile, "but you're still not strong nor skilled enough."  
  
"Who said I ever wanted to?!" Janus growled.  
  
He threw his sword at Slash's feet.  
  
"Hit me, then!" he snapped, "you can hit me until I break, but I will never fight for you! Not for you, not for Ozzie, not for Flea and not for any Mystic!"  
  
Slash foot made a tapping sound as it repeatedly hit the ground.  
  
"I grow so tired of you, Magus."  
  
"My name is Janus."  
  
Slash sighed.  
  
"You will never become anything if you don't forget all the rubbish you always go on about, even when you sleep you yell for that Schala and Lavos. Until you forget you will stay the dumb, stubborn child."  
  
"I will never forget, do you hear me?!" Janus screamed, the mere thought driving him into rage, "never! I will never ever forget Schala, or what Lavos did! You can't ever take that away from me!"  
  
The red whip that materialized in Slash's hand wrapped itself around the boy's throat and he was dragged to his knees, struggling for air.  
  
"You are a stupid boy," Slash said as Janus desperately tried to get a grip of the whip, "you don't see the truth of your own weakness. According to your noisy slumber, you wish to kill Lavos, am I correct? Answer me when I ask you a question."  
  
Four voices hissed in rage as Janus was violently pulled up in his hair, his face a grimace of pain. Magus didn't make a sound.  
  
"Do you want to kill Lavos?" Slash repeated, "it's a simple question; yes or no?"  
  
"Yes..." Janus croaked, stuttering.  
  
"Well then."  
  
Slash removed the whip from the thin throat and threw Janus to the ground. The boy stood on his knees and hands, coughing as he tried to regain his breath.  
  
"You say you want to kill Lavos?" Slash scornfully said, "I have no idea who Lavos is, but you're too weak to fight anything. I won't let you enter any battles before you have become stronger."  
  
Janus took a few deep breaths, slowly.  
  
The prince from Zeal stood up. And his green eyes were suddenly different; filled with cold determination.  
  
Frog had to fight back a moan caused by the knowledge that the boy Janus now was dead, murdered by Slash.  
  
Janus reached out his right hand, and the sword floated up from the floor, into his grip. Slash's eyebrows went up.  
  
"I need another weapon, Slash," Janus said, even his voice slightly different, "the sword doesn't fit my hand."  
  
"Is that so, Magus?" the swordsman said, suddenly a lot more interested, "then we'll just have to find you something more suitable."  
  
And Janus nodded, not protesting about the name anymore.  
  
Frog rubbed his forehead and shook his head, silently bidding the poor boy farewell. The illusions disappeared.  
  
"And from that day," Flea's mocking voice said from faraway, "the little pest began to grow into an impressive warrior. My compliment, Slash."  
  
There was another illusion. Janus was now about fifteen, and he wore almost all of his usual clothes, except a couple of sizes smaller and the gloves and cloak excluded. The purple, tight pants, the blue piece of cloth around his waist, the boots, the chest- and back plate made of hard leather. His face had begun to turn pale and his eyes didn't look as green anymore.  
  
He stood straight, arms crossed, staring resolutely at something. Ozzie stood behind him, smirking.  
  
"My congratulation," the monster said, "you took care of that pretty well."  
  
"Were there any prisoners taken?" Janus asked, emotionless.  
  
"No, as you ordered."  
  
"Good."  
  
Not even Schala said anything more, there was nothing left that could express the despair and anger of the watchers.  
  
Janus glanced over his shoulder.  
  
"But I still need a weapon, Ozzie," he said.  
  
"I don't know," the monster said and shrugged his shoulders, "it seems to me that you can do a lot with only your bare hands."  
  
"Still, I need one."  
  
"You and Slash have gone through every single weapon there is for at least ten times!" Ozzie said, a bit irritated, "but nothing is good enough for you."  
  
Janus shook his head.  
  
"I know," he said, "nothing seems to suit my grip. Nothing fits my soul."  
  
Ozzie rubbed his fat, bouncing cheeks with a frown.  
  
"I'll talk to Slash," he said, "maybe there is something, after all..."  
  
"Didn't you say we had already tried everything?" Janus pointed out.  
  
"Indeed. But there is one weapon that Slash never would let you try out, because that must be with my permission."  
  
"And what would that be?"  
  
Ozzie gave a twisted, wicked smile.  
  
"Come, Magus, we will take care of this immediately."  
  
Janus turned and followed the green monster as he floated backwards. The illusion changed; this scene had probably occurred only a few minutes after the earlier one. Janus now held a scythe in his hands, weighing and judging it. Ozzie and Slash watched him, almost without breathing.  
  
Janus smiled coldly; the smile which Frog knew too well.  
  
"Perfect," the young man said.  
  
"Lizard's weapon...?" Slash whispered to Ozzie, apparently not pleased with the situation.  
  
"I have a good feeling about this," the green monster sneered, "he is perfect."  
  
"Yes indeed, but it's the king's..."  
  
"Nevermind that, none of my family has been able to master it for generations," Ozzie said, "but maybe it can bring us to great victories once more."  
  
"I don't like it at all!" the swordsman shuddered.  
  
"Care for a training round, Slash?" Janus smirked, "I want to know what this can bring."  
  
"Flea is waiting for you," the deep purple monster said.  
  
Janus snorted.  
  
"He can wait a little longer," he said, "does it matter in which order I have my lessons?"  
  
"You have some nerve..." Slash sighed, "that will never change, will it? Alright then."  
  
The scene dissolved.  
  
"Of course it took him another few years to become our leader instead of pupil," Flea's distant voice said, "but he showed up to be more effective than we ever dreamed about, good boy."  
  
Magus pursed his mouth and went on, entering the enormous cavern where he had saved Frog's life a while ago.  
  
"Not to forget," the woman-looking magician's voice said, "this all-time classic event..."  
  
Frog startled at the next illusion. He saw himself, as Glenn, kneeling by a fallen knight in a golden armor. The pointy, chestnut-colored hair moved silently in the wind that also created waves in the grass and made Magus' blood-red cloak flow over his back. 


	17. Lonely warrior

~*~Chapter 17 Magus' last battle~*~  
  
Ozzie was also there, standing beside the Prince of Darkness. What once had been Janus now looked almost exactly like the real warlock, who watched the illusion with a grim look. It was hard to tell how old the boy had become, but he naturally must have been a few years younger than Magus now was. The only thing that was absolutely clear was that he by no means was Janus anymore.  
  
"C-Cyrus! Nooo!" Glenn cried.  
  
"Run, Glenn..." the knight stuttered, choking up a flood of blood which stained his armor as well as his face.  
  
The illusion of Magus waved with one hand, and the friend of Cyrus drew back in shock as the brave warrior was engulfed with flames. The knight was so badly hurt that he couldn't even scream as the fire burned the last of his life. When the heat ceased, the armor had melted and Cyrus' skin had cracked up. He was dead. Glenn didn't move, just stared at the body of his friend, unable to move because of the despair.  
  
"Well, boy?" Magus smirked, "won't you try your luck, too?"  
  
Glenn got up with a stuttering, half strangled cry of agony on his lips.  
  
"Cat's got your tongue, boy?" Ozzie sneered.  
  
The green monster turned to the warlock.  
  
"What do you say, Magus? Can't you give him a more suitable form?"  
  
"Alright, why not?" the Prince of Darkness said with a vile smile, "there's always time for a little fun."  
  
Glenn screamed as he was hit by a small lightning and began to glow in strange, horrible colors. He fell to his knees, pressing his arms against his head, groaning with pain. Then he staggered to his feet, backed and fell out of sight; dropping from the unseen cliff.  
  
Frog shuddered and clenched his teeth. The illusions dissolved.  
  
Flea-and-Slash stepped out of a shadow, smirking.  
  
"It took us almost thirteen years," Slash said, "and the result might not have been what we expected, but we created a Magus."  
  
Schala rushed forward with a growl that sounded absolutely hideous coming from her, but Magus stopped her by raising his arm so that it blocked her path. Even though she could have walked around him she stopped.  
  
"Let me pass, Janus!" Schala screeched, "I'll drink their blood!"  
  
"Is this the Schala who you always screamed about?" Flea scornfully asked.  
  
"Why did you capture Crono and the women?" Magus asked, without any emotions in his voice, "where are they?"  
  
Flea or Slash pointed upwards. Way up high, by the ceiling Crono, Marle and Lucca were twisting in rage. They hung in dark threads, which trapped them so well that they reminded of caterpillars on their way to become butterflies. Not very happy about it, though...  
  
"We only wanted to make sure that you brought the amphibian too, lord Magus," Flea sneered, "your past confused them enough for loosing just enough attention."  
  
The warlock's breath gave away that he was about to say something but fought it back.  
  
"I wonder how many times we actually had to hit him in those first five years before he finally accepted his place," Slash said, mockingly thoughtful.  
  
Magus didn't move as a small hand with pink skin was raised towards him. He wasn't trying to avoid Flea's power, which blew his cloak and leather armor into smithereens. It was as if he had given up the battle of protecting Schala against the truth. Even Molor backed in shock, with a hiss that sounded like a groan.  
  
With the leather and cloth gone, nothing could hide that Magus' back and chest barely had any skin at all left.  
  
There were only scars, slowly healed soars left by hundreds of whips.  
  
"Good gods..." Schala whispered.  
  
"Can you still believe in that, little angel?" Flea scornfully asked, "after all you've seen today?"  
  
"Leave her alone," Magus slowly said, with a growl in his voice that was the beginning of something terrible.  
  
Flea sighed.  
  
"Alright then, lord Magus," he said, "if that is your wish."  
  
He waved a little with his hands. Schala gave a shout filled with anger and surprise as black threads caught her waist and wrists, pulling her up to Lucca's side. Magus spun around, just in time to see Frog, Cered and Molor get abducted in the same way.  
  
"Janus, look out!" Cered yelled as he was lifted upwards, struggling wildly.  
  
Magus threw himself aside, and a red whip hit the ground.  
  
"Did you know that a dog which have been kicked always will fear the boot, boys and girls?" Flea cheerfully said.  
  
The prisoners watched in horror as the warlock drew back, his body remembering the small, scared boy. Instincts will sometimes be the worst of foes, they told him that he couldn't fight, while his mind knew that he do could. It made him too confused. The whip hit his left arm, the one that held the scythe. There was a clonking sound as the weapon hit the ground, and blood fell on the blade. Magus was hit over the chest as he tried to pick his scythe up again, and he staggered backwards with a hoarse growl. Though it was said that only the Masamune could break his steel skin easily, it seemed as the contraption that had tormented him as a boy could do the same thing.  
  
"Stupid boy, Magus," Slash sneered as if talking to the child, "do you expect us to feed you when you never obeys?"  
  
"My name is..." the warlock growled between his clamped teeth, "my name..."  
  
But he never finished the sentence. Instead he moved his hands in an attempt to use magic against his enemies, but his concentration shattered as the whip hit him again.  
  
"Ozzie was a fool to let you have the weapon of Lizard," Flea sneered, "you are too weak again, boy!"  
  
Magus growled and leaped forward, knocking the two-in-one body to the ground. But as the gloved hands reached for the fine throat, Flea teleported. His and the swordsman's whole equipment appeared again, standing behind the warlock. Magus hadn't time to react before his back received a bleeding wound. He managed to roll aside and got up, but his strength was fading quickly.  
  
"Damn it," Lucca snarled, "if only I could point at them...!"  
  
Every one of the prisoners were twisting madly to get their hands free, forgetting about the height.  
  
"Molor, do something!" Cered yelled.  
  
But the snake's mouth was bound with the threads, as well as Marle's, Schala's and Crono's.  
  
Slash's sword appeared in the shared body's free, left hand.  
  
"I feel that it's time to end your pitiful life, Magus," the swordsman coldly said, "traitors and weaklings cannot be accepted."  
  
The warlock jumped aside to avoid the blade, but the pain of the many soars made him slow. He growled something, but his voice was so thick with anger that it was impossible to hear what it was.  
  
'He will not survive!' Frog desperately thought, 'if only he could concentrate enough for chanting a spell, if only he hath his scythe!'  
  
But the weapon laid on the floor, many yards away from Magus, and as he couldn't use magic for the moment, he couldn't call for it.  
  
'His scythe...?' Frog thought.  
  
A mad idea formed in the knight's head. It was so hideous that he should have been burned by the stake simply for thinking of it.  
  
Frog lowered his head and sent out his long tongue, ripping something from his chest and bringing it into his mouth.  
  
"Janus!" he yelled and spat out the small object, "catch it!"  
  
A tiny, glistening projectile fell through the dry air, and Magus caught it in his left hand as he jumped aside again. He froze for a second, staring at what Frog had sent him. Then his eyes went up to the knight, who grinned in an almost insane way.  
  
"Masamune!" Frog called, "go forth to his hand!!"  
  
And the sword left its metallic ring and soared through the air. Time froze completely for a moment.  
  
Then Magus' right hand gripped the hilt and he spun around. Before Flea and Slash had been able to react they had received a cut from the left shoulder down to the stomach. Without a single sound they dissolved, carrying a look of outmost surprise and shock.  
  
"My name is Janus," Janus growled, grimly staring at the place where his past teachers had been standing.  
  
He looked down at the Masamune.  
  
"Frog, you are a madman."  
  
"Most true," the knight kindly said, "would thee please bring us down from here?"  
  
Janus put the Masamune and the hero medal on the ground before turning around, raising his hands.  
  
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Lightning!"  
  
As the black threads broke the warlock carefully lowered his hands, and the freed prisoners were slowly sent to the ground. As soon as her feet touched the ground Marle rushed over the floor and swung her arms around Janus' neck, not minding that his blood stained her clothes and skin. He stumbled backwards of her momentum and the complete surprise.  
  
"Janus!" she yelled, as if revolting against everything that she had witnessed, "Janus, I'm so sorry I thought you were nothing but a monster!"  
  
"Marle?" Janus said, almost dumbstruck.  
  
Schala walked over to her brother and the princess, also catching him in a warm embrace.  
  
"I love you, little brother," the woman with blue hair whispered, "I always have and I always will. Forgive me, I couldn't save you."  
  
"There's nothing to... Lucca?"  
  
"I thought you were the worst scum of this world even when we fought together," the inventor said as she wrapped her arms around his neck, "I should really have studied you better, Janus."  
  
He had to sit down, the three women's weight became too much. Molor crawled over the floor and rubbed his head against Janus' cheek. Marle shuddered a little at the snake, but then pulled herself together.  
  
"I thought that even though thou were the brother of Schala, thou were a coldhearted man," Cered grimly said, "I dost now see how wrong I was. I am most glad to become thy brother in law."  
  
"So am I, Cered," Janus said with the shadow of a smile, "I am sure that you will make a good husband for Schala."  
  
Crono reached out and somehow managed to touch the warlock's shoulder, despite the many arms that still were kept around the pale throat. Janus and the young man with pointy hair watched each other for a short while. Then the warlock simply nodded. He turned his head and looked at Frog.  
  
"I cannot forget what thee hast done, Janus," the knight slowly said, "and some things cannot be forgiven. But much of it can, I see that now."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
Janus suddenly smiled a bit.  
  
"But having me wielding the Masamune," he said, "can my sins be compared with the crime of making up such an idea?"  
  
Frog laughed and picked up his two artifacts, the sword and the medal.  
  
"Aye, I believeth that it will bring me about three hundred years more in the Holy Fire of Melting Sins before I can enter heaven as everyone else."  
  
"I guess I'll be waiting for you then."  
  
Janus stood up, and was released from the three pairs of arms.  
  
"Now then," he said, "what shall we do next? Any suggestions?"  
  
"Let's start with a double dose of healing magic," Marle warmly said.  
  
Frog nodded and raised his hands. The bleeding wounds healed and Janus' leather armor returned, as well as his cloak. He straightened up with a smile. The magic stars even brought away the stains on Schala, Lucca's and Marle's clothes.  
  
"Much better," the inventor smiled, however she continued bitterly; "but Janus, we..."  
  
"I would like you to not make my past concern you," Janus said, "there's nothing that can be changed."  
  
He suddenly smiled in a strangely revolting way.  
  
"There is something I'd like to add, actually."  
  
"What?" the others said, surprised.  
  
"On that day when I got Lizard's scythe in my hands, and I made Slash test me..."  
  
Janus grinned, shockingly.  
  
"... I beat the crap out of him."  
  
"Thee... beat the..." Frog slowly said.  
  
Then he smiled broadly. He could almost see the scenery before him, as another illusion; Slash being brought to his knees by "the worthless worm", Ozzie's shocked gaze and Magus' triumph. What had followed that event didn't really matter for the moment.  
  
"Well done," Cered smiled.  
  
Schala put her hand on Janus shoulder with a small laugh.  
  
Molor hissed.  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
Janus turned to look at the snake, frowning.  
  
"Sss... tsstss!" Molor whispered, nodding at Frog.  
  
"Indeed, yes..." Janus slowly murmured.  
  
"What is it?" Marle wondered.  
  
Janus put his fingertips together and started to mumble. By his chanting, the cave became more and more unclear.  
  
"Where are you teleporting us?" Schala asked.  
  
"Guardia castle," Janus answered, "I have a sin to make up for."  
  
"What?"  
  
The guards startled and drew back in surprise, queen Leene and her husband rushed up from their thrones as the air suddenly started to sparkle and produced a group of unexpected guests.  
  
"What the...?" king Guardia XXI gasped.  
  
Then the lightning bolts ceased, and the travelers were to be seen.  
  
"Frog!" Leene exclaimed, with great relief.  
  
"Sir Crono?" the king said, "miss Marle and Lucca... err, lord Magus?"  
  
"I have to admit there aren't extreme circumstances which brings me here," Janus said with a peculiar smile, "but still, I have to take care of something. Frog."  
  
"What?"  
  
Most of the eyes resting upon him were filled with distrust and uneasy questions. The man with blue hair looked at the knight.  
  
"Frog, will you trust me just once?" the warlock asked.  
  
The knight didn't have any eyebrows, otherwise he would have done as most people in this story had done before him, and raised them. But because of his... situation, he couldn't.  
  
"Trust thee? Probably nay. Yet I will listen," he said, having an uneasy feeling that this could have something to do with the only way to reverse a certain spell. He wasn't really in the mood for killing a warlock.  
  
"I would like you to give the Masamune and the hero medal to Cered for a moment. Otherwise they might disappear," Janus said.  
  
'What is he planning now, then?' Frog thought, frowning.  
  
'Wait and see, you pest,' Janus' telepathic voice said inside of the knight's head.  
  
But the last two words no longer carried the usual sneer and scorning, instead almost as a call of a frie... no, that was still beyond honor. And yet, somewhere along the way, it had become true, even if it was of a very twisted sort.  
  
Frog nodded.  
  
"Just for this moment, then, I will trust thy word," he said.  
  
Cered carefully took the holy sword and the medal, just as bewildered as everyone else. Frog turned to Janus, wondering what awaited him. The warlock raised his hands.  
  
"This won't hurt a bit," he said with a smile, "I promise."  
  
"Huh?" Frog gasped before the eerie, black-purple light surrounded him, trapping him inside a glowing bubble which floated up a few feet above the ground. The whole thing was familiar...  
  
"What are you doing?!" he heard Leene yell, shocked.  
  
The voices that also called out in surprise and accuse were as distant as the queen's; the magic didn't allow much sound through.  
  
"Calm down," Schala warmly told the worried crowd, "there's no need for fear."  
  
Frog caught Janus' gaze through the strange light, and the warlock moved his hands. Last time the knight had been exposed to this spell, his skin and flesh had been healing backwards, returning his wounds most unpleasantly. This time, however, there was no feeling of falling apart. Instead Frog felt that he became longer. His arms and legs grew, his face felt as if somebody smoothly reformed it like soft mud, the back and top of his head tickled as an army of thin threads grew from it. Even his skin felt different, changing color and type. His hands and feet became longer.  
  
The bubble of light broke, and he fell to the floor, gulping for air, filling his suddenly bigger lounges completely. There were a lot of running feet, yet Janus was the one who grabbed the knight's hand and helped him to sit up.  
  
"How do you feel, Glenn?" the warlock asked, investigating, yet almost, almost kindly.  
  
"Tall," Glenn answered after a moment of trying to figure the sensation out.  
  
He reached up and touched his spiky, chestnut colored hair, looked down at the same clothes that he had been wearing on that awful day when he had thought that his life had been smashed into pieces forever.  
  
"Skin and hair... such a fantastic sensation," he murmured, mostly to himself.  
  
He looked at Janus.  
  
"Thee reseteth my body, as thee did once before?"  
  
"Yes. Molor came up with it. He is a good companion."  
  
"I thank thee both."  
  
Molor hissed triumphantly and somehow congratulating. And as Glenn reached out and touched his head, his whispering purring didn't become warningly. 


	18. And ze epilogue

~*~Epilogue (You never thought this would come, did ya?) ~*~  
  
Four months later.  
  
Glenn was in the training-quarters, working on his sword skills together with other soldiers. He still had the knowledge he had acquired as Frog, yet his body lacked the same resources. The reversing spell had snatched several years of training, but Glenn didn't mind. He knew that he could build it up again, the feeling of being human again made it all worthwhile. Even if he was most glad about once more being a man, he somehow missed being Frog sometimes. He had grown used to it, it had been his life for some time.  
  
His present life hadn't changed, except that he was a human and everybody was so happy for him that it was almost embarrassing. He was still queen Leene's guardian and general of the Guardia army (a position he'd been more or less forced into in the first place, to be honest).  
  
Of course he had spent some time thinking about why Janus had reversed the spell, but had decided that the idea of a wife could wait at least until he was in as good shape as before. One thing at the time. He looked at the corner where he had left the Masamune for a training sword of wood, smiling at the memory of all he had gone through with the sword in his hand. The door opened and a servant carefully peeked into the room, ready to duck for anything that somebody could send flying from a lost grip. As all seemed clear, the man spoke:  
  
"General Glenn?"  
  
The called one lowered his wooden sword.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"There is a visitor for you... in your room. Err, he is... eh..."  
  
The fading speech of the servant gave away who the visitor was, and Glenn hurried out of the training-quarters, up the stairs to his own room. He didn't even mind that he forgot to bring the Masamune with him. When he pushed the door open, a blood-red cloak moved by the wearers movement standing up.  
  
A big, black head rose up from the floor, and the forked tongue danced in a hissed greeting.  
  
"Art there extreme circumstances to attend, Janus?" Glenn asked, with a smile.  
  
"More or less," the warlock smiled, "Schala and Cered are getting married, so they sent me to bring everyone to 5300 BC. Are you coming?"  
  
"I musteth of course ask my liege for permission."  
  
"Of course."  
  
They went down the stairs, to the main castle.  
  
"Great party!" Ayla happily howled.  
  
"Miss Ayla," Robo said, "be careful not to drink too much of that..."  
  
"Tin-friend pipe down and have a toast!"  
  
Lucca had almost been crying as Janus had brought Robo from a clean, healed future. The warlock had faced a bit of problem, since Robo never had been fighting in this mended time-stream and therefore never had met his friends. However, a time-spell similar to the reset-magic had brought everything back to Prometheus of the R-series.  
  
"My, my," Gaspar smiled, "I almost feel young again..."  
  
"Indeed, my friend," Melchior nodded, "I hope Belthasar sees this from the heavens."  
  
"Ye think that he would miss this for anything in the whole time?!" Spekkio (in the form of Toma the explorer, don't ask why...) laughed.  
  
"How did thee make them leave the End of Time?" Glenn hissed to Janus.  
  
"It wasn't easy..." the warlock said and shrugged his shoulders.  
  
Marle sighed with a dream-like smile, sitting close to Crono and with his arm around her.  
  
"Schala is so beautiful..." the princess of Guardia mumbled, giving Crono a kiss on the cheek.  
  
He softly squeezed her shoulders, smiling warmly.  
  
Schala really looked like a nymph of heaven in her white, flowing dress. She danced with Cered, in the middle of a circle of the many other smiling couples. The married two had their own space, though.  
  
Cered wore something that looked like a uniform for "special occasions", mainly the same as always, but with softly red and green bands on every edge of the clothing, and around his waists.  
  
Lucca watched the dancing for a while, then she stood up so fast that she almost was jumping. She turned to Glenn with a slight blush and a most resolute look.  
  
"Will you dance with me?" she asked.  
  
He didn't even get time to answer before she had grabbed his hand and dragged him into the crowd.  
  
Janus removed the meat from a chicken's leg and gave it to Molor. Then he turned to Crono and Marle.  
  
"And when will you two send me to fetch the others for you wedding?" the warlock asked.  
  
Crono smiled warmly.  
  
"Oh, so soon?" Janus said with the shadow of a small smile, "I better start preparing already, then."  
  
"Just enjoy the moment right now, oh pale friend of mine!" Marle laughed and emptied another cup of something.  
  
"Crono, keep her away from that drink from now on," Janus sighed.  
  
But he smiled.  
  
The celebration went on all night, and even as the sun began to shine. On the brink of "real" morning, the time when the most early people normally would have got out of their beds, there was a shout. The loud yell almost made the whole village's houses crumble, and all the birds which had praised the new-born day became silent and fled to the trees. The shouting one was Janus, and his words were followed by almost hysterical laughter from several lips. What shook the air and scared animals was this:  
  
"Ayla did what to heal me?!"  
  
  
  
The end.  
  
The sequel to this is named "Another life" and concerns Janus' alternate past, a huge, flying lizard and a four years old, blue haired girl… ;)  
  
Thanks to anyone who reviewed. It's greatly appreciated. I accept flames if there is a good reason for them. 


End file.
